President Mwai Kibaki who is in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil attending the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development today held talks with the President of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), which is the second largest development bank in the world.

During the talks, President Kibaki expressed Kenya’s interest in establishing a credit-line with BNDES to finance priority projects in the country noting that Kenya would be willing to go up to 2 billion US Dollars on this credit line.

President Kibaki cited agricultural development, infrastructure and energy as among the priority sectors requiring financing.

Noting that Kenya is part of the Brazilian More Food (Mais Alimentos) Programme, President Kibaki thanked the Brazilian Government for including Kenya in its programme of mechanization of agriculture.

With respect to infrastructure, President Kibaki said the construction of roads is an important part of Kenya’s development agenda. In this regard, the President appealed for partnership with Brazilian Government and
investors in infrastructure development to decongest the city of Nairobi.

In the energy sector, President Kibaki sought the support of the Brazilian Development Bank in financing the production of sugar, ethanol and co-generation of electricity.

During the talks, the President of the Brazilian Development Bank said the bank will extend a soft loan of 80 million US Dollars towards the mechanization of agriculture in Kenya.

The President also said the Bank will extend further financing in excess of 150 million US Dollars towards the construction of link roads and interchanges to decongest the city of Nairobi.

With this commitment, Kenya now awaits the results of the review that the Brazilian Government and the Brazilian Development Bank are carrying out in conjunction with the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development for the construction of interchanges to decongest the city of Nairobi.

With respect to the production of sugar and ethanol, the President of the Brazilian Development Bank recalled that the Government of Kenya had held talks on the same with former President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, during his State visit to Kenya in July 2010. Following these talks, the President expressed the Banks readiness to cooperate with the Kenya and was looking forward to further consultations in this regard.

The President was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Professor Sam Ongeri, Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Thuita Mwangi and Kenya’s
Ambassador to Brazil, Amb. Kirimi Kaberia, among others.


PPS
Rio De Janeiro
22.06.2012