KENYA-SOUTH AFRICA BUSINESS FORUM STATE VISIT BY PRESIDENT RUTO OF KENYA

“It is an honour to address the Kenya-South Africa Business Forum for the first time since we met in Nairobi in 2022.

Your presence here shows the value you place on this partnership.

We expect that this forum, building on the success of our meeting in Nairobi, will deliver real outcomes. Among the outcomes we seek is a substantial growth in the volume and value of trade between our two countries.

Since 2022, total trade between South Africa and Kenya has grown by an average of 3.5 percent a year. Kenya remains one of South Africa’s largest trading partners on the continent outside the Southern African Development Community. South Africa continues to import products, services, technology and skills from Kenya.

The second outcome we seek is investment. Kenyan companies have invested in 11 projects in South Africa worth 283 million US dollars. South African companies have 96 investment projects in Kenya, representing just over 2 billion US dollars.

It is not only the private sector that has backed our economies. South Africa’s development finance institutions have funded many projects in Kenya. The Development Bank of Southern Africa was one of the funders of a 350km pipeline replacing the Mombasa-to-Nairobi petroleum and crude oil products line. Our development finance institutions are keen to do more to fund catalytic infrastructure in Kenya.

As has become evident from this forum, there is huge untapped potential in both our economies as we both pursue structural reform, industrialisation and diversification. By unlocking this potential, we can advance inclusive growth, meaningful employment and shared prosperity.

Let me commend the areas you have chosen to focus on today. I understand that the finance and innovation panel set out how capital in its various forms – equity, debt and patient capital – can fund the technical and trade-facilitating infrastructure we need. Delivering those projects will help build the fiscal stability both our countries require.

I welcome the case made for manufacturing across autos, pharmaceuticals, mining and construction as a path to industrialise and diversify. We have seen today how our companies are investing in and integrating into regional value chains.

South Africa has always urged companies to pair investment with technology and skills transfer, which helps to create sustainable jobs and develop local capacity. We have noted the proposals on how our governments can work with the private sector to secure food for our people.

We hope that our Ministers of Agriculture will engage on the proposals on using technology for climate-smart production and the views presented on livestock management to fight foot and mouth disease. Your discussions show how our complementary capabilities can be put to work.

I believe President Ruto shares my view that we have moved beyond what we can sell to each other and towards what we can build together with each other. You have made a tangible case for how our two countries can harness capital, technology and market access to fuel our growth.

As the two governments, our task is to incentivise growth. We need to create enabling environments and remove the impediments to growth. We are committed to addressing challenges in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area guided by the principles of transparency, predictability and cooperation.

The Memoranda of Understanding on Standards, Quality, Metrology and Accreditation signed between our institutions and trade ministries are part of a suite of measures to ensure policy predictability. This will enable the private sector to better plan, invest and prosper.

We are facilitating trade through enabling physical and digital infrastructure. Our development finance institutions are appraising funding for the Kenya Roads Board Securitisation Programme, to help its three transport agencies deliver the kilometres set out in their service charter.

We are prioritising ports and corridors and working out how best to harmonise customs for the era of digital trade, in line with the AfCFTA. On the digital side, our officials are updating our ICT agreements to keep pace with technology – covering industrial innovation, technology transfer, digital trade and artificial intelligence.

These are a few examples of how we are closing infrastructure gaps, lowering costs and keeping our products and services competitive against imports from outside the continent.

There is a compelling case for intra-Africa trade and investment. Our role is to keep pressing for market access and to deepen investment in research, so that our trade grows first bilaterally, regionally and to offshore markets. We must strengthen mechanisms for resolving disputes so that they do not damage commercial relations.

We are confident that a South Africa–Kenya Business Council will enable business to speak with one voice.

Over the years we have spent a great deal of time in dialogue. Your deliberations today underline the urgency with which our resolutions must now become action.

We must put our capital, our industry, our regulatory progress and our digital gains to work. We must draw on our respective strengths and capabilities to build together. We should not confine ourselves to ‘Made in Kenya’ or ‘Proudly South African’. We need to build Pamoja, Together.

Rather than working in isolation to protect our markets, let us integrate our supply and value chains. The inclusive growth we seek requires that our two countries work in partnership.

Through collaboration, South Africa and Kenya will be able not only to develop our two countries, but to contribute to a better, more prosperous Africa.

Asante Sana. I thank you.”