Patrick Njaywe
6 July 2009
Nairobi — A one-day conference organised by the Embassy of Spain in Nairobi brought into the country a 25-strong delegation of businessmen and officials from the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade.
Spain, in the introductory words of the ambassador, Nicolas Martin-Cinto, turned a blind eye to sub-Saharan Africa when it discovered the Americas in 1492.
But now Spain is one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union, increasingly turning to manufacturing and technological, financial services to spur this growth.
This means Spain must find new outlets for its products and services away from the Americas where they see increasingly diminishing returns occasioned by the world economic crisis.
Kenya would be the natural entry point into the East and Central African countries and markets.
It is by far the largest and most sophisticated economy, with long-established trade and transport links to the adjacent countries, making it the ideal springboard into this region.
The Spanish delegation to this business gathering, dubbed "Kenya-Spain Business Meeting," brought with it an assorted bag of products and services -- construction, financial services, water technology, tour operators, and solar energy photovoltaic cells among others.
On the Kenyan side, were a few government officials, most notably the permanent secretaries in the ministries of Finance and Energy, accompanied by key private sector players led by Kevit Desai of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance.
The economy of Spain has a lot more to offer Kenya and East Africa than was suggested at this meeting.
Statistics made available show Spain having annual foreign tourist figures of about 50 million. Kenya has done 2 million tourists only once (in 2005-06).
Kenya prides itself as a prime destination, with wildlife, mountains, beaches and the odd conferencing possibility, but an underfunded marketing budget.
Thus involvement with Spanish marketing initiatives would put Kenya and its products across to a much larger audience than it could reach through its own strategies.
Spanish brochures could mention Kenya as a great onward destination in its footnotes.
Currently, there is no scheduled direct flights between Kenya and Spain.
This means all possible Spanish tourists come via other European gateways with direct flights to Kenya (Heathrow, Amsterdam, Brussels) as well as other recent gateways (Dubai, Doha, Paris).
Compare this with Casablanca, Tunis and Marrakech which are 1-2 hours from Spain by air, or 6-12 hours by sea.
Lack of direct air/sea connection means Kenyan horticultural produce as well as finished products from EPZ factories cannot reach Spain conveniently.
Morocco, an upcoming flower exporter, sends nearly 70 per cent of its fresh produce to Spain by sea. In the next five years, it will overtake Kenya in production of cut flowers.
Sadly, as the conference drew to a close, it became apparent that the government component of the Kenyan delegation was more interested in the loans /grants agreements the Spanish people had brought along.
Given Spain's increasing influence in Europe, and the similarities between the two economies, this conference should have achieved a more.
Indeed the scheduled activities for Day 2 of this meeting were scrapped in favour of a visit to Treasury buildings to formally acknowledge these credit lines.
My immediate disappointment with the way the conference developed started with the clear absence of one-to-one opportunities between Kenyan businessmen and the Spanish entrepreneurs.
In other similar fishing trips by foreign delegations ( I have in mind one recently concluded by Iranian business community ) an Expo/exhibition provides this much needed individual contact .
No business deals are sealed in day-long plenary sessions full of innocuous speeches by tired-looking government bureaucrats interspersed by flashy Powerpoint presentations by suave private sector players.
The situation was not made any easier by the language barrier created by the non-English speaking Spaniards. Maybe this is the reason why the Embassy did not put up any forum for exhibition.
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