Yoon welcomes first Kenyan leader to visit in three decades

Diplomacy

Published: 23 Nov. 2022, 18:27

Yoon welcomes first Kenyan leader to visit in three decades

President Yoon Suk-yeol, right, shakes hands with Kenyan President William Ruto at the Yongsan Presidential Office in Seoul on Wednesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Yoon Suk-yeol welcomed Kenyan President William Ruto to the Yongsan Presidential Office on Wednesday afternoon, hosting a Kenyan leader for the first time in over 30 years.

“Kenya is Korea’s traditional ally with whom we have maintained close relations for a long time under the banner of liberal democracy since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1964,” Yoon said.

While Wednesday was their first meeting, they had sent special delegations to each other’s inauguration ceremonies, both having been elected this year.

Ruto visited several countries following his inauguration, including the U.K. for Queen Elizabeth's state funeral, but his visit to Korea this week was his first visit to an Asian country.

He was the first Kenyan president to visit Korea in over 30 years, the last time being President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi in March 1990. Moi was the first Kenyan president to visit since Korea and Kenya established diplomatic relations in 1964.

“With today's summit as an opportunity, I hope that these exchanges and cooperation between the two countries will be further strengthened,” Yoon said.

In response, Ruto thanked Yoon for a warm welcome, highlighting the history of friendly relations and common values such as multilateralism.

The Kenyan presidential delegation is in Seoul through Friday and includes dozens of corporate representatives in the infrastructure, agricultural and digital sectors, and cabinet secretaries representing the ministries for road and transport, agriculture and livestock, health, and ICT and digital economy, among others.

The delegation called for more Korean investment in Kenya at a business forum hosted by the Kenyan Embassy at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul earlier on Wednesday.

“My presence here is to confirm to you Kenya’s readiness to engage [with investors in Korea],” said Ruto, addressing dozens of corporate executives representing companies including Hyundai Engineering, Daewoo E&C, Posco International, LG CNS and Samsung C&T Corporation.

“The opportunities that Kenya presents to invest in are not just about opportunities in Kenya, [they are] bigger than that,” Ruto continued. “It is an investment opportunity that you can launch from Kenya into the continent of Africa.”

Kenyan President William Ruto addresses Korean executives and investors at a forum hosted by the Embassy of Kenya in Seoul at the Lotte Hotel on Wednesday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Kenya, located in East Africa, is the largest economy in the region with a GDP of $110 billion as of 2021. It is the region’s logistical hub.

In 2018, the country joined the largest free trade pact in the continent, the African continental free trade area, which brings together some 1.3 billion people and a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion, according to the World Bank.

Trade between Kenya and Korea has grown over the years, with trade volume reaching some $257 million in 2020, according to the Foreign Ministry of Korea.

Yet most of this – as much as $220 million – was of exports from Korea to Kenya, a trend that the Kenyan government is hoping to modify.

“Kenya’s exports to South Korea grew at 16 percent yearly over the past five years, from $22.8 million to 2017 to $95.7 million in 2021, [whereas] imports grew 45 percent annually,” said Moses Kuria, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. “There is a huge trade imbalance. It is my hope that this visit is going to go a long way to address this particular imbalance.”

The cabinet secretaries traveling with Ruto laid out specific areas open to investment from Korea.

“Nairobi is home to 5 million people, and during the day the population rises to 7 million people as more people come in for work, and the congestion of the roads can be serious,” said Kipchumba Murkomen, cabinet secretary of roads and transport. “Korea, a country known for its intelligent transport system, will find ample opportunities for investments in the road and traffic system of cities of Kenya.”

Susan Wafula, cabinet secretary for health, pinpointed Korea’s health facilities that earned global attention during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Korea is one of top five countries in terms of their universal health coverage acknowledged by the WHO [World Health Organization],” said Wafula. “As we are also looking to achieve universal health coverage in Kenya, we are trying to be internally sufficient in our manufacturing of pharmaceutical products and technologies.”

From left, Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport Kipchumba Murkomen, Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Mithika Linturi, Cabinet Secretary for Health Susan Wafula, Cabinet Secretary for ICT and Digital Economy Eliud Owalo, and Ambassador of Kenya to Korea Mwende Mwinzi, at the business forum hosted by the embassy in Seoul on Wednesday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Korean SMEs attending the forum showed interest in finding new niche markets in Kenya.

“We’ve worked in China and in Southeast Asia, but the cost of labor is rising there,” said a representative of Biotong, a crop seed SME based in Gyeonggi, with a branch office in Beijing. “We’re hoping to find partners in Kenya and the wider Africa region who might be able to offer the skilled manpower for hand harvesting of crops at a more affordable price.”

The agricultural sector accounts for around 20 percent of Kenya’s GDP, employing over 40 percent of the total population, according to the Central Bank of Kenya.

Kenyan Ambassador to Korea Mwende Mwinzi said there is something in the Korean history of economic development that many Kenyans could find useful in planning their futures.

“When I talk to Koreans, the first thing I always hear is the long story of Korea [going] from poverty to prosperity,” said Mwinzi during the forum.

“Way back, when Koreans would meet, instead of saying good morning or good afternoon, they would say, 'Have you eaten today?' So the journey that they have traveled is one that we have embarked on … to not only [meet our] domestic needs in food security but [also to have] the capacity to export.”

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]