Jobs pressure pushes State to revive industries

By James Anyanzwa

Nairobi, Kenya: Deputy President William Ruto Wednesday launched a new industrialisation blueprint.

The document seeks to turn around the country’s struggling industries, create employment and lift millions of Kenyans out of poverty.

The road map developed by the Ministry of Industrialisation and Enterprise Development aims to improve the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 11 per cent to 20 per cent in the next 10 years and raise the sector’s share of exports from 11.4 per cent to 30 per cent in a similar period.

The ambitious plan, which requires an initial capital outlay of about Sh52 billion annually from the exchequer, also seeks to improve employment opportunities from 275,000 to an additional 500,000 direct manufacturing jobs per year.

Vision 2030

“As a country, Kenya has identified industrialisation as the way forward towards the attainment of middle income status as outlined in the Jubilee manifesto and Vision 2030,” said Ruto.

He was speaking during an event to mark the 2013 Africa Industrialisation Day in Nairobi Wednesday.

In a speech read on his behalf by the Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua, Ruto said the Government will address the long needed restructuring of State-owned industries and increase their capacity in order to attract new investments and create employment opportunities.

Under the new plan, the Government will encourage growth and investment of small and medium-sized enterprises and create appropriate incentives to attract Foreign Direct Investments through special economic zones, free trade zones, industrial parks and clusters, and industrial mapping.

The Government will also put in place enabling policies to improve the country’s competitiveness and ease of doing business. Ruto said the Government would also focus on building attractive sectors where the country has natural competitive advantage such as leather, textiles and clothing, agro-processing, furniture, saccos and co-operatives.

“We have launched a programme, the journey we intend to make in order to take the country through a process of industrialisation,” said Cabinet Secretary for Industrialisation and Enterprise Development, Adan Mohamed.

 “We know the issues that have impeded the growth of our industries for a long time. Things like the cost of power, transport, logistics and ease of doing business.”

Under the new plan, the Government will seek to establish strong support industries to capitalise on growth in transport, energy and construction, revive textile industries to take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act and invest in support industries and value adding industries.

Ruto said saccos and co-operative movements would also be strengthened to play a leading role in value addition and to ensure that local communities participate in the industrialisation agenda.

“Specifically to facilitate growth and higher employment creation, the Government will also focus, over the plan period, on expanding the area under irrigation and modernise our agriculture and establish disease-free zones to support development of the livestock sector,” he said.