Kenya Calls for Joint Investment With Iran on Renewable Energies, Urban Management
IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK
TEHRAN – A group of economic activists from Bomet County of Kenya, led by Bomet Governor Ms. Hillary Barchok, during a visit to Tehran met their Iranian counterparts and called for cooperation and joint investment in fields of water, agriculture, production of renewable energies and urban management.
The Kenyan group attended Iran Chamber of Commerce and met their Iranian counterparts and explored ways for developing ties. Kenya is one of the major tea-producing countries in the world and it is pursuing foreign investment and starting the joint regional activities for developing its cooperation with Iran.
During the meeting of Kenyan and Iranian business activists, Iran’s Ambassador to Kenya Mr. Jafar Barmaki pointed to the capacities and potentials in Kenya, adding that the ground for joint cooperation between Iran and Kenya is favorable and announced the launch of innovation center in Kenya in cooperation with Iran’s Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology.
He added he believes this center can take good step in direct and constant contact with the export acceleration center for improving the level of the trade exchange and investment.
Ms. Barchok, for his part, pointed to the appropriate grounds for cooperation between both states. She then said that she believes Kenya with having suitable land for agriculture can be a good destination for investors in this filed, adding that almost 80 percent of those lands in Kenya are arable and currently 60 percent of Kenya’s tea is produced in Bomet County.
She further said that Kenya is ready to learn and offering new ideas for reinforcing relations between both states, and expressed his satisfaction over considerable opportunities for cooperation between Iran and Kenya.
Barchok went on to say that Kenya’s economy is dependent on agriculture and it is striving to increase its profits in this sector, reiterating that Kenya is after elimination of middlemen, and after direct sales of its agro products.
The governor of Bomet also pointed to the challenges of Kenya in the fields of water and energy, expensive price of electricity and lack of appropriate storage system for keeping its agro products.
She added that Kenya hopes that it can restore good cooperation with its Iranian party for solving its problems, noting that Kenya due to its huge capacity for livestock needs processing system for milk especially for producing butter.
She also pointed to the transfer of medical technology, methods of irrigation of arable lands in large scale, new patterns of urban management, constructing plants for producing renewable energies, processing different kinds of garden products like avocado and mango as the good grounds for joint cooperation between Iran and Kenya.
Meanwhile Ali Chagharvand, a member of policy-making council of Iran’s export acceleration center, for his part, talked about concentration on cooperating in the fields of industry, trade and agriculture, adding that this center is a new idea which has been set up in cooperation with Iran Chamber of Commerce and it helps private and government sectors to work together for easing business and boom in exports.
