6th annual global south-south development expo 2013,

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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6th annual global south-south development expo 2013,

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