She also briefed the Chinese representative on the "four major plans" that the Kenyan President is fully pursuing. These four plans include food safety, affordable housing, manufacturing and universal health care. In the manufacturing sector, the textile and apparel industry bears the brunt.
The government plans to further increase the proportion of textiles and clothing in the total economic output: the output value of income should be increased from the current 350 million US dollars to 2 billion US dollars; in the cotton field, 500,000 jobs should be provided; in the field of garments, it is necessary to provide 100,000 jobs. “The textile and garment industry is regarded as the focus of the development of the manufacturing industry because the textile and garment industry can provide a large number of employment opportunities. At present, the size of garments in Kenya is gradually increasing, and it has become the largest garment manufacturing country in East Africa, and the fabrics for making garments are large. Some of them are imported from China, so I hope to have more cooperation with China."
At the same time, Betty Maina also introduced Kenya's advantages as a cotton growing country in raw materials, as well as Kenya's need to import Chinese fabrics in ready-to-wear, strong market demand, and can provide investment opportunities for Chinese companies. In particular, Kenya’s “export processing zone” and “special economic zone”, in terms of taxation, both enjoy corresponding tax exemption policies and so on.
The Chairman of the International Textile Federation, Jaswinder Beidi, also explained the investment situation in Kenya.
He said that the US textile and apparel market has a capacity of 100 billion US dollars, and China's exports to the United States are more than 30 billion US dollars, accounting for 1/3. However, due to Sino-US trade friction, China's exports are affected. It is pointed out that Kenya’s exports to Europe and the United States are duty-free, which is Kenya’s advantage.
He used a polyester shirt as an example. In China, a polyester shirt is exported to the United States for a 32% tariff, which is a $3 polyester shirt, which is subject to a $1 tariff. In Kenya, the tariff is zero.
He also frankly pointed out the development shortcomings of Kenya's textile and garment industry: because there is no complete industrial chain, raw materials need to be imported, so Kenya has a long lead time in delivery, especially under the current demand for fast fashion and rapid response, global The market delivery time averages around 45
