Kenya anticipates economic gains from Diaspora

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya expects to reap economic benefits from its Diaspora, once a newly-passed bill, which eases investment-licensing procedures and transforms the existing Investment Promotion Centre into an authority becomes law, experts said Monday in Nairobi.

According Frederick Owiti, IPC's Head of Research and Policy Analysis Department, the transformation of the licensing agency into an investment authority will enable it to prod the government to change its investment policies.

"We can help the government to track and bring in foreign capital through the sale of bonds with the Central Bank of Kenya as the guarantor. We are currently discussing the issuance of such bonds, which attract some two percent interest," Owiti told PANA.

The sale of the bonds to foreigners, according to him, would generate enough capital, which could be used to acquire state- owned enterprises currently being prepared for privatisation.

Kenya has been grappling with the absence of policies aimed at tapping foreign expertise and investment capital from its Diaspora.

Kenyans in the Diaspora accuse the government of pursuing "possessive" immigration policies, limiting their participation in nation building initiatives.

"The draft Kenyan constitution has provisions for dual citizenship. Foreign investors coming to Kenya feel that their investments are safe if they are granted citizenship while they still continue to retain their original citizenship," Owiti told PANA in Nairobi Monday.

The IPC, a statutory organ created by the Kenyan government in the early 1990s to help attract foreign investments at a time when donor funding began to dwindle for the East African country, is expected to regain more regulatory powers once the Investment Bill, passed by Parliament two weeks ago, becomes law.

Speaking on the sidelines of a three-day African Brain Gain conference which opened in Nairobi Monday, Owiti said the Investment Centre, tasked with hunting and licensing new investors every year, is exploring different approaches of attracting foreign capital.

Owiti said that, like Asian countries, Kenya is exploring ways of attracting investments through outsourcing businesses and capturing funds from the Diaspora for the possible acquisition of the privatised state corporations.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the African Regional Centre for Computing, Shem Ochuodho, said African professionals could help create jobs by investing in the Information Technologies (IT) and utilising the available cheap labour.

"African experts working outside the continent stand a good chance of creating more jobs by selling software to foreign firms and outsourcing the rest of the jobs to fellow African professionals still working within the continent," Ochuodho noted.

The computer expert said African firms must unite to form consortia to be able to compete at the same footing on an international scale, noting that the cost of trained manpower is far much cheaper in Africa.

Nairobi - 20/12/2004

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