Kenya and Turkey have set an ambitious target to grow their bilateral trade volume to the one billion dollar (ksh100 billion) mark within the next five years. This was one of the outcomes of a bilateral meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey at State House, Nairobi.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to Kenya in the company of 135 top businesspeople from turkey to explore ways of increasing the commercial engagements with their Kenyan counterparts.
President Kenyatta and President Erdogan said the ambitious target can be easily met through the adoption of innovative business models such as Buy, Operate and Transfer (BOT), and Public Private Sector Partnerships (PPPs).
In the meeting, President Kenyatta urged Turkey to invest in Kenya’s Renewable Energy Sector, Infrastructure Development, Agro-processing, Irrigation, ICT,Oil and Mining, the Manufacturing Sector as well as the Laps set Project and Konza Techno City.
President Erdogan, on his part, said the government of Turkey is ready to support Turkish business people to invest more in Kenya.
On the issue of Somalia, the two Presidents agreed to continue working closely for the stabilisation of Somalia.
The Turkish leader also called on the international community to shoulder its responsibility when it comes to the issue of refugees.
President Kenyatta and President Erdogan also oversaw the signing of three bilateral agreements to improve cooperation between the two countries.
The three agreements signed today include moues between the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, and the Yepi merkezi, to support the implementation of the greater Mt. Elgon-Bungoma-Busia multipurpose water project.
This brings to 13 the number of bilateral agreements signed between Kenya and Turkey so far.