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7/27/2019 6TH ANNUAL GLOBAL SOUTH-SOUTH DEVELOPMENT EXPO 2013,
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SPEECH BY H.E UHURU KENYATTA, THE PRESIDENT OF
THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF
OF THE ARMED FORCES, DURING THE OFFICIAL
OPENING OF THE 6TH ANNUAL GLOBAL SOUTH-SOUTH
DEVELOPMENT EXPO 2013, GIGIRI, NAIROBI, 28TH
OCTOBER 2013.
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The Vice-President of the United Nations General
Assembly High-level Committee on South-South
Cooperation and Chair of the Session, Dr. Zsolt Hetesy
The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Mr. Jan Eliasson,
H.E. Benjamin Mkapa, former President of the United
Republic of Tanzania,
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H.E. Wu Xisaoqing, Vice-Minister of Environment of
China,
The Director General of the United Nations Office in
Nairobi, Ambassador Sahle-Work Zewde,
The Executive Director, UNEP, Mr. Achim Steiner,
The Executive Director, UN-HABITAT, Mr. Joan Clos,
Honourable Ministers,
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Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome all delegates to our
beautiful country. It is a great privilege to have this
opportunity to host you and show-case the vast opportunities
that Kenya has to offer.
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As you all know, Nairobi hosted the United Nations High
Level Conference on South-South Cooperation from 1st to 3rd
December 2009. During that meeting the Nairobi Outcome
Document was adopted to guide the advancement of South-
South Cooperation as a means of advancing economic and
social development through more South-South trade,
investment, science and technology programmes,
educational and cultural exchanges. I am therefore pleased
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to note that Nairobi has been selected to host the first Global
South-South Development Expo in the South.
By hosting the sixth Global south-South Development Expo
in Nairobi, you have honoured our country and also
demonstrated real confidence in Nairobi as the only
headquarter of leading UN global institutions in the south.
We in the Kenya Government promise you in return,
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maximum cooperation and support from the government and
the people of Kenya. We have never taken the UN presence
in our country for granted. I therefore take this opportunity
to express my Government’s appreciation to the UN Office of
South-South Cooperation, Dr. Achim Steiner the Executive
Director of UNEP and the entire Expo 2013 Steering
Committee, for the work they have put into organizing this
historic event.
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Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentleman,
We in Kenya take pride in our involvement in South-South
cooperation over a long stretch of our history. Our
nationalist movement was based on Pan-Africanism, Third
World solidarity, and the Non- Aligned Movement that united
the peoples of African, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle
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East in the struggle for universal freedom and self-rule. We
are proud of the role that Kenya and other African countries
played in the liberation of colonial territories world-wide and
in realizing the 1948 UN’s Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. All this enabled our countries to start in organising
their own national governance institutions according to their
own preferences, as compared to those of our colonizers.
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After our independence, we also resumed cooperation with
our Third World partners some of which existed before
colonialism. In Kenya, our people were for centuries part of a
vast trading network on the Indian Ocean that stretched
from China to India and the Middle East and that linked these
regions to trading towns on our coast. We have since our
independence intensified our trade, economic and cultural
ties with states of the South, without ignoring our vital ties
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with the countries of the North. We also believe that the UN
and other multilateral agencies have a vital role to play in
this.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The world has changed since Africa’s independence in the
1960s. Economic growth over the past several decades has
been fastest in the South. Developing countries, according
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to many estimates, are set to account for about 60% of the
global GDP by 2030. The South played a major role in
rebalancing the global economy after the onset of the 2008
global financial and economic crisis. We in the global South
therefore face a very different future compared to the past
one that we inherited from our predecessors, the founding
fathers of third world solidarity and the non- aligned
movement. We must cooperate in preparation for a South
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that will be more stable, more prosperous, more industrial
and more technologically advanced. Africa has witnessed its
most rapid period of economic growth in the past decade. It
has not lost that momentum despite the 2008 financial crisis.
We in Kenya believe South-South cooperation will help Africa
intensify rapid growth with widely shared prosperity in a
sustainable manner. This is because we have a lot at stake
in rapid poverty-reducing growth, and also in sustainability.
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Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions to global climate
change. Hence, we must address growth side by side with
environmental sustainability and lower carbon emissions.
In addition to greener growth, a leading tool in this quest is
greater regional integration. In our region, the African Union
has among its objectives the promotion of sustainable
development. It also promotes economic, social and cultural
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integration of African states. One of its building blocks is the
East African Community, to which Kenya belongs. The East
African Community has made strong advances, driven by
leaders committed to joint infrastructure development, and
rapidly lowering existing barriers to trade, travel and work.
We are jointly committed to the preservation of our
environmental heritage.
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The results have been most encouraging. Today, Kenya
counts its neighbours as its major trading partners and
Kenyan companies are among the leading investors in our
partner states. But we are also keen on expanding our
cooperation with other countries in Africa, the Middle East,
Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean. We
now have embassies and consulates in all these regions, and
more will be opened in future. We have also brought foreign
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affairs, international trade and economic cooperation under
the ambit of one new ministry- the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and International Trade. This is therefore an excellent
opportunity for Kenya to put into operation the contents of
the Nairobi Outcome Document of December 2009. Towards
that end, the UN as a whole, and the UN Office of South-
South Cooperation in particular, will be our invaluable allies,
as the UN has always been since our independence.
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We in Kenya are strong believers in greening our economy.
We believe we can have sustainable growth with poverty
reduction without endangering our environmental heritage
today or in the future. As a result our Second Medium Term
Plan of Vision 2030 covering the period 2013 to 2017 is
based on a low-carbon, sustainable and climate resilient
development pathway.
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Our plan also believes that we must make special efforts to
achieve any MDGs that will not have been realized by 2015.
We are participating fully in the post-2015 development
agenda, through our Ministry for Devolution and Planning,
and in developing the post Rio + 20 agenda. All these issues
are scheduled for detailed discussion this afternoon and the
Kenya Government looks forward very much to reading what
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conclusions and recommendation the Leadership Round
Table will arrive at, keeping South-South cooperation in
mind. For all these reasons, Kenya supports a strong and
better-funded UN Office of South-South Cooperation, and a
greater role of South-South relations in global multilateral
agencies.
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Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen
Kenya has committed itself to a growth pattern that will
ensure achievement of middle income status by the year
2030. The Government is working to ensure that all Kenyans,
and especially the youth, are part of this economic
transformation. Much of the economic growth that will be
needed to achieve this will be delivered through increasing
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the bridge between Africa and the rest of the developing
world.
The theme of this Expo, ‘Building Inclusive Green Economies:
South-South Cooperation for Sustainable Development and
Poverty Eradication’, is particularly relevant to us in Kenya
and the rest of Africa, at this juncture of our history.
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We are acutely aware of the need for a greener and more
inclusive growth. In our energy sector, just to cite one
example, we in Kenya have invested heavily in geo-thermal
energy, wind and solar power in order to reduce our
dependence on thermal sources of electricity. Our
development policy has been one that combines poverty
reduction with sustainability. I wish to thank the UN, UNEP,
and all our international development partners who have
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worked with Kenya in re-orienting its energy sector towards
an environmentally-sustainable, low-carbon direction.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The late Professor Wangari Maathai, an icon in our country,
once told us the following: “Until you dig a hole, you plant a
tree, you water it and make it survive, you have not done a
thing. You are just talking”. In other words promoting green,
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sustainable development, actions speak louder than words.
Kenya will be celebrating its fiftieth year of independence
next December. As part of the celebrations, Kenya will plant
50 million trees. In this and other activities that will feature
in this Expo, you can trust Kenya as your partner in word and
in deed. The principles that guide South-South cooperation
are key to our success. We must ensure that the multilateral
system, and the international community, promote green
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economies in word and deed as Professor Wangari Maathai
taught us.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentleman,
Let me conclude by once again by congratulating the
organisers, of this Expo. I also wish to encourage you all to
find time to enjoy the beauty of our country and the
hospitality of our people. We have much to offer.
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With these remarks, it is now my pleasure to declare the
Global South-South Development Expo 2013 officially open.
Thank you and God bless you all.
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