President William Ruto has expressed the country’s interest in considering Singapore’s strategic location in Southeast Asia as a gateway for its products.
Ruto said the decision is driven by the government’s commitment to expanding lucrative markets for Kenyan agricultural produce.
President Ruto highlighted that Southeast Asia, consisting of 10 countries with a population of approximately 670 million, offers Kenya a unique and significant market to sell its goods. He extended an invitation to Singapore’s private sector to invest in Kenya’s under-exploited transport and logistics sectors.
“This will check the low trade volumes and scale up our investments, thereby reducing the current trade deficit with Singapore,” said President Ruto.
President Ruto made these statements during a joint press conference held at State House in Nairobi, where he was accompanied by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Earlier, the two leaders engaged in bilateral talks and witnessed the signing of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) covering areas such as ICT, climate change, and skills development.
Regarding the ICT agreement, President Ruto explained that it would facilitate cooperation in areas such as cybersecurity, digitization of government services, and capacity building in ICT.
The MoU on skills development aims to promote collaboration in human resource capacity building for civil servants and students.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong emphasized the importance of collective action to address climate change, appreciating the signing of the climate change pact as a step toward tackling the “greatest existential threat to mankind”.
The Prime Minister acknowledged the growing and warm relations between Singapore and Kenya.
“Our ties have been growing. We will further this by pursuing more economic opportunities that will stimulate our shared prosperity,” said Mr Loong.
Several officials and leaders, including Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, Attorney General Justin Muturi, Cabinet Secretaries Foreign Affairs Alfred Mutua, Information Communications Technology (ICT) and Digital Economy Eliud Owalo, Public Service Aisha Jumwa, and Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry Saipan Tuya, were also present during the press conference.
