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0:04
Kenya has been known to export a range of products to the East African region.
However, its capacity constraints limit expansion of export-oriented production,
but taking steps to increase local demand for its flagship exports (like tea)
will help cement the advantages that they already have.
There are several other production possibilities in areas like leather,
rubber, sisal and fabricated metal,
which may be developed with a strong export orientation, by
reorganizing industrial production as a response to increased competition.
For example, industries can provide
better access of their outputs to smaller manufacturers,
thereby increasing aggregate demand and reaping the benefits of scale,
learning, and overall competitiveness.
0:53
I assembled data from the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics,
the East African Community Data Portal,
the International Trade Centre,
the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development,
the World Integrated Trade Solution of the World Bank
and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, and other specialized sources
like the East African Tea Trade Association and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.
My goal was to understand the existing flows in a way to frame
the legitimate response that African countries can have to increased Chinese investment.
In this slide, you can see that trade outside Africa is
significantly higher than that within the East African community.
This shows that total trade is more sensitive to what happens outside Africa.
This is an opportunity to diversify the direction and structure of
African exports, so that they can achieve
less volatility in demand and pricing and production.
In this slide, you can see the value of
