President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged the Business Community to leverage trade to strengthen Kenya-South Africa ties.

PHOTO/PSCU

He told them they should consider themselves partners working together to meet the demands for goods and services in Kenya-South Africa instead of viewing themselves as competitors.

“You are not competitors. I think the big mistake we had made is by making each other competitors. We are not competing. We are here to satisfy the needs of our respective markets. Our problem is that we are not working together to meet the demands that our people have,” said Uhuru.

PHOTO/PSCU

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Uhuru said this on Tuesday when he and his host President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed a Kenya-South Africa business forum that was attended by over 250 business leaders from the two countries.

The two Heads of State directed their respective trade ministers to work swiftly towards resolving non-tariff barriers and other constraints that constrict trade between Kenya and South Africa.

Presidents Kenyatta and Ramaphosa tasked their technical teams to come up with measures to address the trade imbalance and noted that trade between the two countries is hugely skewed in favour of South Africa.

Uhuru Kenyatta and Cyril Ramaphosa. PHOTO/PSCU

Uhuru said the technical teams should review the range of goods and services that South Africa imports from the rest of the world; and identify those that the country could source from Kenya and vice versa.

“I am sure you all agree with me, Kenya has a comparative advantage in the service sector, particularly in hospitality, financial services, ICT and data processing,” Uhuru said.

The president challenged the business people from the two countries to work together not to just increase the volume of trade and investment but also to raise its quality and broaden its scope, saying this will create jobs for the youth by spurring faster economic growth.

“This includes exploring options for establishing a favoured status for youth and Small and Medium Enterprises in trade, driving digital trade, and harnessing opportunities created by the climate change agenda to scale up green investments,” said Uhuru.

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President Uhuru pointed out that given the strategic importance of South Africa and Kenya on the continent, addressing the bottlenecks in the trade and investment regime between the two countries would be an important building block towards harnessing the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTFA).

“I encourage you to use this meeting to identify which of the solutions that we are proposing at the bilateral level can be applied more broadly across the continent to unlock the dream of the AfCFTA,” he said.

President Ramaphosa noted that although Kenya is South Africa’s largest trading partner in Africa outside the Southern African Development Community, a lot needed to be done to address the trade imbalance that is tilted in favour of South Africa.

Cyril Ramaphosa. PHOTO/PSCU

Ramaphosa also pointed out that South Africa could be the strategic partner that Kenya needs in implementing its Big 4 Agenda which focuses on manufacturing, food security, universal health coverage and affordable housing.

“For this to happen, our trade relationship needs to involve greater value addition with more focus on manufactured and agricultural goods,” said Ramaphosa.PHOTO/PSCU

"We need to take greater steps to achieve greater balance in our bilateral trade which is currently skewed in favour of South Africa."

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President Ramaphosa said, singling out the importation of tea and coffee from Kenya as the products that could be considered first.

On matters related to COVID-19, the two heads of state said the pandemic has shown that given the right political and institutional support, the private sector can complement the public sector in creating the needed capacity and innovation not just to conquer the virus but also to catalyse resilient recovery.

South African Airways and Kenya Airways signed a strategic framework agreement that provides a roadmap for the creation of a pan-Africa airline group during the forum.

PHOTO/PSCU