Deputy President William Ruto has told Kenyans living in diaspora that the government appreciates their contribution to the economy.
He added that the government is reviewing structures at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to make it easier for them to invest back home.
Mr Ruto said the diaspora desk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is being upgraded to a full directorate in order to serve the Kenyans better.
“We acknowledge what you do and we want to make it better for you to operate and contribute to our economic growth,” Mr Ruto said.
“We are upgrading the diaspora desk in the ministry into a fully-fledged directorate complete with a portal because we want you to engage better with us in Kenya,” added Mr Ruto when he hosted Kenyans living and working in Switzerland to a dinner in Geneva.
ADDRESS BOTTLENECKS
He said the government will address bottlenecks that face the diaspora community whenever they return home with their investments.
“I know you normally have issues when you want to get back home with some of the things you have acquired abroad.
“I assure you that the government through the directorate of the diaspora will sort out those issues,” he said.
Mr Ruto enumerated to the diaspora community the series of projects the government was undertaking saying the country’s economy was in a take-off stage.
Among them is the standard gauge railway, 10, 000 kilometres of road, 5000 megawatts of electricity and cheap loans to the youth and women.
The Deputy President told the Kenyans that the standard gauge railway would ease the burden of transport.
He said the power being generated would equally cut down on the cost of living as the cost of production would reduce substantially.
“Manufactures have told us that 60 per cent of our production cost is attributed to power.
“We want to address that by generating more power that will be cheaper for these manufactures who will in turn reduce the prices of what they are producing,” he said.
Other projects the deputy president highlighted included the one million irrigation project in Galana and the construction of at least two technical training institutes in every constituency in the next five years.
The Deputy President was accompanied by MPs Joseph Muthari of Igembe south, Dan Kazungu of Malindi and Dennis Waweru of Dagoretti South.
Source-nation.co.ke
