NAIROBI, Kenya: June 25 (Xinhua) — Kenya and Russia have resolved to begin process of signing a bilateral air traffic agreement that will allow national carriers of the two countries, the Kenya Airways and the Aeroflot, to fly between the two nations.
The deal was arrived at during a meeting between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the 2012 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which ended on Saturday.
In a statement from Odinga’s office received on Monday, the PM said the direct flights will mark a new start in ties that will cover the fields of agriculture, education and tourism and information technology.
The flights will particularly help Kenya access Russia’s fertilizers, which currently comes to the country through middlemen who cause delays and drive prices up, thus disrupting farming, the statement said.
“Russia is the biggest producer of fertilizers in the world. But we are getting it through middlemen in Amsterdam and other brokers in Nairobi. This results in delayed deliveries, higher prices and poor harvests,” Odinga said.
“Direct flights between Moscow and Nairobi will allow our people to import fertilizers directly and therefore address the critical missing links in the agriculture sector,” the statement said.
“The PM said absence of direct flights was the main reason Kenya, with more to offer in tourism than Egypt, attracts far less Russian tourists than the North African country,” it said.
Odinga said that last year, Kenya, with its diverse offers at lower cost, attracted only 7,000 tourists from Russia while the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh alone, with less to offer than Kenya, attracted more than one million Russian visitors.
Odinga who jetted back into the country on Sunday night also challenged the political and businesses leaders in Russia to use Kenya as their entry point to the African market, which he said has a wide range of opportunities.
During the international economic forum in St. Petersburg, the PM addressed a session on Africa’s readiness for business with the rest of the world. The session explored whether Africa, which has been a bright spot for the global economy since the onset of the financial crisis, is actually ready to experience growth and play a role similar to that witnessed in Asia over the past decades and pull up the rest of the globe, the statement said.
The Forum featured two days of discussions on a range of issues including new energy regimes, Europe’s economic crisis and Africa’s emerging promise as the next investment destination.
“President Putin made a personal pledge to push Russian companies to move into Kenya, saying the two countries had ties through the years that need to be reactivated,” the statement said.
The east African nation is also seeking to grow its export market as part of employment creation to ensure the government complies with the constitutional requirement that guarantees the right to employment for every citizen. Nairobi and Moscow agreed in the past to forge closer bilateral ties and expand areas of cooperation, and they are facilitating exchange of business delegations.
Kenya has invited Russian businessmen in the country to explore investment opportunities and network with their Kenyan counterparts. Russian companies are interested in investing in infrastructural development for the planned construction of Lamu port.
During the meeting, Russian Federation’s Minister for Energy Alexander Novak said Russia is ready for a substantive cooperation with Kenya on integrated development covering geothermal, clean coal, hydroelectric, oil and wind power generation.
Novak said Russia is ready to set up a joint working group with Kenya on how to cooperate in the energy sector where it has massive experience covering oil and gas exploration, among other fields.
Lukoil, Russia’s second largest oil company also indicated readiness to move into Kenya. The management of the company said it would send a delegation to Kenya before the end of July to scout for opportunities in oil and gas exploration. (Xinhua)
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