- Locally, in Kenya, one of the promises made during the campaigns and documented in the Kenya Kwanza manifesto was the establishment and equipping of the County Aggregation and Industrial Parks(CAIP).
- The Aggregation centres will ensure all agricultural products are well stored and therefore saved from perishability.
Image: COURTESY
The desire to attract strategic investors, increase job opportunities for the youth and young graduates and build capacity for export especially for agricultural produce through circumventing challenges which interfere with industrialisation processes.
Challenges that negatively affect the path to industrialisation include limited access to infrastructure, and technology, limited availability of necessary financial sources, high production costs and expensive transaction costs due to logistical challenges.
Industrial parks help bring companies together and also provide opportunities for complementary and collaborative services between various stakeholders such as manufacturers, distributors, exporters and other relevant players with the aim of promoting Investments and facilitating the ease of doing business.
In 1896, Trafford Park, the first-ever industrial park was established by Shipcanal and Docks Company near the city of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
The emergence of Industrial parks was motivated by concepts of regional policies and the desire to spur regional economic development.
In the 1930s, the parks were established to mitigate afflictions of the Great Depression, especially in areas that faced deep crisis in Great Britain. By 1960, there were 46 of them.
This concept was borrowed and adopted by a number of progressive economies across the world such as Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, China among others.
In some places in the world, this concept was later made to expand the industrial parks into industrial cities.
In 1975, Saudi Arabia launched the now most expansive industrial park in the world; the Jubail Industrial City sitting on an acreage of approximately 250,000(1016 Square kilometres) of land.
Being an industrial and investment economic hub, today, Al Jubail alone accounts for 7 per cent of Saudi Arabia's economy.
Locally, in Kenya, one of the promises made during the campaigns and documented in the Kenya Kwanza manifesto was the establishment and equipping of the County Aggregation and Industrial Parks(CAIP).
According to the PLAN by President William Ruto, it was envisioned that the establishment of county-based Aggregation and Industrial Parks would help each part of the country access development and economic growth in a fair and equitable manner.
The PLAN was customised to fit into the aspirations of Kenya's development plan Vision 2030 which highlighted industrialisation as a key component to the country's economic growth.
This is also in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals which list industrialisation at number 9.
In July this year, Cabinet Secretary for Investments, Trade and Industry Moses Kuria announced that the government intended to move with speed in the implementation of the Kenya Kwanza manifesto.
He pointed out that the County Aggregation and Industrial Parks (CAIPs) were at the centre of the President's desires as one way of promoting the Bottom-Up policy of empowering ordinary citizens at the grassroots.
After a meeting with the Council of Governors in late July, CS Moses Kuria confirmed that 32 of the 47 counties do not have anything that has a semblance of an industrial park.
He took this up as a challenge and urged close collaboration between his ministry and the counties in order to fast-track the establishment of aggregation and industrial parks in all 47 counties.
The Cabinet Secretary went ahead and declared that within 12 months, each of the 47 counties will have at least one Aggregation and Industrial Park.
The Ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry has moved with speed and so far, just within the month of August alone, four counties have already done the groundbreaking of their respective CAIPs and as a sign of commitment to the PLAN, His Excellency President Dr William Ruto himself has performed all the four groundbreaking ceremonies.
The four counties are Busia, Nyamira, Bungoma and Kakamega with TransNzoia and Vihiga as next in line for phase one of the program.
The Ministry of Investments Trade and Industry under the directions of CS Moses Kuria has put in place a timetable with strict timeliness to ensure constructions commence without any delays.
Once they become operational, the CAIPs will be economic hubs of respective counties and will play a key role in implementing equitable economic growth in a better and fair manner in every corner of the Republic of Kenya.
This approach will mitigate the long-term gaps that were left by the Sessional Paper No 10 of 1965 which only focused on high-potential areas and left behind other regions that were not favoured by the classification in terms of agricultural potential.
This approach will ensure every county in Kenya maximises its potential by putting to use its resources and finding a common market for its produce.
The Aggregation centres will ensure all agricultural products are well stored and therefore saved from perishability.
The CAIPs will also be strategic coordination points for our exports and thus will save rural farmers from inconveniences and incurring of losses.
The CAIPs are a genius idea and one of the greatest flagship projects of the Kenya Kwanza administration.
Apart from generally impacting the economic progress of Kenyans at the grassroots, the program will also create wealth and employment opportunities for the youths and fresh university graduates.
Indeed, this is the most realistic beginning of Kenya's journey towards modern industrialisation.