Kenya – Turkey Experience Sharing Program (5-13 May 2018) Benchmarking in Turkey for a globally competitive Kenya

Kenya Vision 2030 is the country’s national long-term development blueprint covering the period from 2008 to 2030. It aims to transform Kenya into a newly industrialized, middle-income country that provides high quality of life for all her citizens in a clean and safe environment by 2030.

The Vision consists of three main pillars: economic, social and political. All three activity units are organized as separate components. The structure is based on the foundation of macroeconomic stability; infrastructure development, science, technology and innovation; land reforms; human resource development; security and public sector reforms. It provides strategic leadership and coordination in the realization of the overall goals and objectives of the medium-term plans.

In order to share Turkey's political, economic and social achievements, and to expand the potential for cooperation with Kenya Vision 2030’s Secretariat, a benchmarking trip for a delegation of twelve (12) participants drawn from different cadres was organized in Turkey in May 2018. The trip was fully sponsored by TIKA Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency under supporting civil and administrative institutions for good governance program.

The first part of the 10 days trip involved visits to public institutions in Ankara, namely; Housing Development Administration TOKI, Small and Medium Industry Development Organization KOSGEB, the Ministry of Development and other sectors where Turkey has a comparative advantage with skills and resources. The TOKİ Presidency and important social housing projects in Ankara were visited in order to obtain information about the housing construction aimed at regular urbanization. Herein the Kenyan delegation found an opportunity to develop political relations and cooperation opportunities between the two countries.

The second part of the trip involved visits to mega projects in Istanbul. These included the Marmaray, M5 Uskudar Metro Station as well as one of Turkey's mega projects, the new IGA Airport which is expected to be the largest airport in Europe after it becomes operational. The delegation also held meetings with Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey DEIK Istanbul Development Agency İSTKA afterwards. Leading the delegation the Kenya Ministry of Planning Principal Secretary Julius Monzi Muia, stated that these visits provided them with a great deal of experience and knowledge, and that the information they gained from the mega projects will be an important guide in improving Kenya's infrastructure. In this context, TIKA, which played a big role in the realization of the visit, expressed their gratitude to all the Turkish officials who paid a visit to the projects for bilateral talks.

The visit came in conjunction with Kenya’s development charm offensive efforts. The 4 major thematic areas Big 4 Agenda were declared by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been re-elected to Presidency last year. Big 4 Agenda aims to accelerate Vision 2030 concordant with realization of the socio-economic development strategy in Kenya. Big 4 aims  to provide food security, secure affordable housing, support manufacturing sector and creating employment  and  creating affordable health services infrastructure. The members of the delegation were grateful for the benchmarking trip as it provided a great opportunity to share experiences and confer on different areas of collaboration with stakeholders from the public and private sectors, as well as Turkish entrepreneurs.