Kenya to attract foreign investors to hit 10 pct annual growth

Kenya is planning to raise the amount of foreign investments to 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in order to hit 10 percent annual economic growth, a government official said on Wednesday.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said the East African nation expected to grow at 6 percent this year, a situation much different from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) focus of 1.4 percent economic growth rate for Africa.

"Our economy is growing favorable at 6 percent and the foreign direct investment is rising due to the measures we have put in place. We are not happy to grow at 6 percent. We want our growth to reach 10 percent. This requires us to deepen our business sector reforms," Rotich said.

The Treasury minister spoke at the launch of a new World Bank Group's Doing Business 2017 report which shows Kenya climbed 44 places to become the world's third most improved business destination.

Kenya hopes to attract foreign investments equivalent to 30 percent of its 70 billion U.S. dollars. According to the minister, Kenya plans to sustain efforts to improve the business environment. At the rate of 30 percent, Kenya projects at least 21 billion dollars worth of foreign investments to improve national economic growth to 10 percent.

In order to achieve the growth rates, Kenya's Industrialization Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed said the country performed better on the improvement of the business environment.

Measured against 10 different scores by the World Bank Group's Doing Business Report, Kenya emerged number 92 out of 190 countries as a result of measures to ease the conditions for doing business.

The government eased conditions of doing business by removing stamp duty requirement on nominal capital for business registration, easing the cost of business start ups.

Mohamed said the government also eased the conditional requirement for all business start-ups to appear before an attorney to swear an oath to comply with the business laws.

The measures helped improve the East African nation's ranking on the global business outlook.

"Kenya has made it easier to resolve business insolvency and even easier for firms which ran bankrupt to liquidate and reenter the market. Previously, it was impossible to register the same business after running into bankruptcy," Caroline Kariuki, Chief Executive Officer, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) told Xinhua.

She said Kenya emerged as the third most improved country in the Doing Business Report as a result of the business laws, which include the legislation creating the Special Economic Zones.

The industrialization minister said the country aimed to move 42 places up on the Doing Business ranking by 2020 after moving 44 places in just two years. Endit