Chinese Ambassador to Kenya has reiterated his country’s commitment in supporting Kenya achieve more development as envisioned in Vision 2030 and the Big 4 Agenda.
Ambassador Wu Peng, who spoke during his welcome reception at the embassy, said China’s relations with Kenya will keep growing, and pledged to join hands with the Kenyan people to enhance “win-win cooperation and safeguard multilateralism.”
“We reaffirm that China will fully support Kenya’s development, and actively participate in our growing cooperation,” he said on Saturday evening, “Over the decades, our cooperation has been built on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefits.”
Wu arrived in the country in March as the 16th Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and UN-Habitat.
He said he admires the Kenyan culture and the “strong vitality of the Kenyan economy, and has urged Chinese nationals in Kenya to respect laws governing the country at all times.
He said the SGR transported 1.67 million tons of goods, thus generating nearly 5.4 billion Kenya Shillings in revenue.
“With this accelerating momentum, the revenue of SGR is expected to reach 12 billion Kenya Shillings by the year-end,” he said “Therefore, it is convincing that Kenya is able to generate profits through the SGR. The SGR Phase 2A will be open to traffic soon, and I’m sure the joint effect of them will generate more profits for Kenya and bring more substantial benefits to Kenya people. This is what we should focus on.”
On Kenya’s request, the Ambassador said, Chinese companies are working on contributing to the Naivasha industrial park. “Chinese Embassy is fully supportive of this and would like to help bringing more investments,” he said.
“We are willing to strengthen cooperation with other development partners on the basis of keeping the leading role of Kenya, so as to achieve win-win outcomes. After all, China does not have its own agenda in Kenya. Kenya’s development priorities are also our preferred areas of cooperation,” he said.
The Kenyan government was represented at the event by Foreign Affairs Cabinet Administrative Secretary (CAS) Ababu Namwamba, who lauded China for supporting Kenya in accelerating development.
“China’s direct investment in Kenya reached 520 million US dollars in 2018,” Wu said.
