India plans to focus more on trade, technology and agriculture in the wake of renewed investments into Kenya.
Its investments have been mostly in education, industry, manufacturing and health.
The United Asian Network - the umbrella body that brings all the Asian countries together, says that over the next few years the Asian nations are set to increase the size of investment into Kenya.
With the increased investments India will be targeting the larger EAC region that currently has an estimated market of 312 million people.
UAN chairman Bimal Kantaria while speaking on the sidelines of the weeklong conference commemoration of 75 years of India’s independence, said they would examine the contribution from multiple perspectives.
This will enable the Asian nations to strategically craft the areas of investments with the greatest impact
“Over the next five to ten years IT is going to be very important, service industry, agriculture, millet and some of these big investments that we are talking about are going to be the future of India’s investment into the country,” said Kantaria.
India has emerged as the third leading trade partner with Kenya, according to the Economic Survey 2023.
The survey says India is number three among top import sources, but the value of goods exported to Kenya dropped last year to Sh230.9 billion, from Sh250 billion the previous year.
The Asian continent still continue to dominate, accounting for 69.1 per cent of the value of trade volumes shipped to Kenya during the year.
Of the Sh2.5 trillion Kenya spent on imports, a total of Sh1.7 trillion went to Asia, Sh612 billion Middle East, Sh323 billion went to Europe, Sh273.6 billion was spent on imports from Africa while Sh144.9 billion was spent on imports from America (US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and others).
During the year, Kenya spent Sh597.7 billion on petroleum products, which accounted for nearly a quarter of the total import bill even as the weak shilling to the US dollar increased expenditure.
The diaspora conference hosted by High Commission of India in Nairobi brings together over 200 high-level dignitaries from the diaspora, academia, think-tank, business, and media as well as from the host government.
