Thaindian News

Nairobi, July 17 (IANS) Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has left for Beijing to attend a key China-Africa forum where he is also expected to sign bilateral initiatives that will enhance relations between China and Kenya.

A statement from the prime minister’s office said Odinga will be in China for a week to attend the Fifth Ministerial conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and sign a number of agreements with Chinese leadership, reported Xinhua.

The prime minister is scheduled to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao.

Odinga will leave for Nanchang, Jiangxi province, Saturday where he will meet the governor and sign a memorandum of understanding between the Kenya and China Jiangxi Corporation for International Economic and Technical Co-operation.

“The MoU is for the development of solar/diesel power plant in Kenya and for a concessional loan for the construction of Mbita- Sindo-Magunga-Karungu-Masara road and Sindo-Nyandiwa-Sori road,” it said.

The Kenyan PM will also sign another MoU between the government of Kenya and Zhongmei Engineering Group for a concessional loan for the construction of another road.

Officials from the east African nation have said they are counting on China to continue official development assistance and concession loans. The latter has now reached $1.28 billion.

The bilateral trade has experience exponential growth just like trade between China and majority of the African countries. Bilateral trade between Kenya and China hit $2.43 billion last year, up 33 percent from a year earlier, according to website of China’s foreign ministry.

Kenya mainly exports leather, tea, coffee, sisal fiber, scrap metal and horticultural produce to China and imports machinery, electronic and electrical goods, textile and fertilizer among others.