Japan Hosts Kenya Expo 2025 – Day 2
in Japan mark decades of diplomatic ties trade relations between the two nations continue to flourish but beneath the optimism lies a sobering reality the balance of trade remains heavily tilted in Japan’s favor a high level business forum in Osaka aims to confront this challenge head on it is a gathering of minds and markets top government officials and business leaders from Kenya and Japan are meeting on the sidelines of the export 2025 Osaka at the heart of the discussions is how Kenya can carve a bigger slice of the Japanese export market kenya’s cabinet secretary for investment trade and industry honorable Lee Kenyan Jui is leading the delegation in seeking solutions to longstanding hurdles the trade balance has consistently been in favor of Japan with the current ratio at about 13 due to the high level of imports compared to exports from Kenya in 2024 Kenya’s exports to Japan were valued at 69.2 million US while imports were valued at 8 6 million USD resulting in a deficit of 747 million kenya’s exports to Japan point to a high reliance on raw materials and traditional agricultural commodities whereas Kenya’s imports from Japan are mainly vehicles transportation equipment and raw materials among the key concerns raised in early engagements including during the Kenya diaspora dinner are the lack of direct flights for perishable goods and the high cost of freight to challenges that continue to undermine Kenya’s export potential in Japan we are actively working to enhance trade facilitation improve regulatory frameworks and promote sustainable and inclusive growth aligning with Kenya’s vision 2030 and the bottom up economic transformation model investors have also been urged to enhance value addition for their goods so that they can have better chances at penetrating the Japanese market on his part the director general of Japan external trade organization Hideki Shaw reiterated on the commitment that both business leaders in Japan and Kenya can work together to foster business relations
in this spirit Japan remains an open and welcoming market to Kenya as well on your side Kenya is member of the eastern East African community and the common market for eastern and southern Africa and also the African continental free trade area and as supply chains take shape in Kenya we look forward to seeing even greater participation and expansion of Japanese businesses in your good country as a gateway to the region the forum is set to spotlight fresh opportunities with focus on areas including tourism special economic zones and showcasing Kenya’s iconic products and services a panel discussion also explored ways in which they can elevate Kenya’s global brand in the Japanese market the day’s deliberations expected to culminate to strategies that could unlock new trade pathways between Kenya and Japan
the Japanese audience is willing to engage with Kenyans and it is up to us as Kenyans to be able to show them what it is that they can be able to engage with and also the deals and the leads that shall come from such an engagement in attendance were members of trade industry and cooperative committees in both national assembly and the senate they highlighted the challenges and focus more on finding solutions to enable Kenyan exporters access Japanese market
we have visited the the Dongokundu special economic zone which is a gamecher if completed especially for the export market there are also legislative gaps which we have identified which in line with other policy actors we are going to look around on how to implement that so that we make uh or lessen trade barriers between Japan and Kenya today’s port trade and industry that is CS Leanju has graced the event and also has highlighted has highlighted how the government of Japan and the government of Kenya have collaborated in matters to do with de development especially in Kenya and now we shift gears to see how that will translate to meaningful development within Kenya and especially when it comes to the issue of um export because Kenya seeks to enhance its export um and leveraging on this expo to market itself as an exports hub that event has just happened and the hallmark of all this um expo is the Kenya National Day that will be happening at the pavilion now now at um Canai where the pavilion or the expo is happening now and given that um the CEO of K proper has also indicated in the last two months they have received over 500,000 uh visitors to the pavilion meaning that um there might or there will be some meaningful impact uh that will be gotten from this expo we’ll be bringing you the happenings um at the Kenya day tomorrow so you want to keep it KBC channel one for this and much more my name is Mike Mewood
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