Mr. Chairman,

Distinguished Members of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry,

I am delighted to join members of the Saudi Business Community to share experiences of the available economic opportunities in my country.

First of all, I want to thank the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the wonderful hospitality extended to me and my delegation since our arrival in this great Kingdom.

Let me also thank the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce for inviting me to this wonderful luncheon which gives us an opportunity to interact and share views on how to promote business between our two countries for the mutual benefit of our peoples.

Kenya and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia share historical ties that date back many centuries. The Kenya Coastline has over the centuries welcomed many visitors from the Arabian peninsular and other parts of the world.

The results of this contact are evident from the large Muslim population along the Kenya Coast, the culture of the coastal people of Kenya and above all, the Swahili language, whose vocabulary contains a large quantity of Arabic words.

My visit to this country is an effort to further strengthen the historical ties and sound relations that exist between our nations and peoples. Kenya is well positioned as the gateway to the Eastern Africa region. As a member of East African Community and COMESA, we offer investors a large market for their products.

Moreover, as the communications hub in the region, Kenya provides excellent communication linkages with other markets in Europe, Asia, and America. By investing in Kenya, you have the opportunity to market your products to the larger market in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

There are numerous opportunities for investment in agriculture and livestock production, Information and Communications Technology, tourism, infrastructure development including roads, railways, seaports and airports and manufacturing.

We are encouraging investments in these sectors through provision of an enabling environment and incentives to investment by both foreign and domestic players.

Some of these incentives include, a competitive tax regime, guarantee against expropriation, repatriation of capital and profits, one hundred percent investment allowance, duty remission, and loss carried forward.

Furthermore, the Export Processing Zones offer additional incentives such as a ten-year tax holiday and duty-free importation of capital goods, intermediate inputs and basic raw materials. I therefore want to invite you as potential investors to come to Kenya and take advantage of the investment opportunities existing in our country.
In agriculture for example, Kenya is one of the largest producers of tea, coffee and pyrethrum. We are particularly keen to develop agro-processing in these areas which will not only bring higher profits to the investors, but also improved earnings to our farmers.

Under the American Growth and Opportunities Act, there are additional opportunities for investment in the cotton and apparels industries. We are therefore encouraging more investors to come to Kenya and invest in the apparels sub-sector for sale to the U.S. market.

Furthermore, the livestock sub-sector offers opportunities in camel farming, production and marketing of canned and fermented meats; leather tanning, processing of milk and other dairy products, rearing of wild game and game meat production.

In addition, the fisheries industry offers investment opportunities in sustainable fisheries; culture fisheries in farmlands; and deep-sea fishing.

With regard to tourism, Kenya is an internationally recognized tourism destination. My Government would like to encourage investors from this country to visit Kenya in order to identify opportunities for investment in the tourism sub-sector.

At the moment, the tourism industry in Kenya has shown remarkable recovery and we are experiencing inadequate bed capacity. I therefore urge Saudi investors to join us in the development of new hotel facilities, recreation and amusement parks as well as health spa centres.

Mr. Chairman,
Kenya's vibrant manufacturing sector has considerable potential for growth and export to the East African Community and COMESA regions.

I therefore urge the Saudi business community to come to Kenya and participate in the fast developing manufacturing sector and particularly, in sugar refining, metal fabrication and engineering; manufacture and assembling of electrical and electronic equipment and plastics.

As I conclude, let me emphasize that infrastructure is crucial to the development of our country. I therefore urge investors from this Kingdom to consider investing in our infrastructure development, especially in the construction of roads, rail, airports, and maritime ports. These can be implemented through a concession system.
A number of investment opportunities are also available in the sub-sectors of energy, housing, health and education.

Mr. Chairman,
The investment opportunities enumerated above are key to the achievement of the national goal of employment creation and poverty alleviation.

I note that Middle East takes only 3 percent of Kenya's exports. This could be increased by Saudi Arabia increasing its imports of Kenyan goods, especially meat and dairy products, tea, leather products and minerals.

With these remarks, Mr. Chairman, I invite you to find time and visit Kenya to see our tourism resorts and wildlife.

Thank you all.