REMARKS BY HON. PETER KENNETH DURING THE INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING AMONG ECONOMIC PILLAR SECTORS WORKSHOP, NAIVASHA, 8-10 TH NOVEMBER, 2011

Director General, Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat

Senior Government Officials

Technical staff present

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my pleasure to join you today for this information and knowledge-sharing workshop for the economic pillar sectors.

With the launch of the Kenya Vision 2030 as the country's long-term strategy, we as a country moved from the five-year planning cycle to over twenty-year planning cycle. This was in turn actualised into the five-year medium-term plans for ease of implementation and monitoring. We are now in the last stretch of the first MTP, which makes this workshop timely for a number of reasons.

First, the six sectors comprising the economic pillar, namely, tourism, agriculture, financial services, business process outsourcing, trade, and manufacturing are the productive sectors of the economy. This means that when these sectors are vibrant and doing well the economy does well, as they make direct contributions to economic growth as envisaged in the Vision 2030 blueprint. Of course, the productive sectors are dependent on the other pillars of the Vision 2030 – the social and political pillars, as well as the enablers and macro.

Second, we have traditionally relied on working in an environment where tuff mentality reigns, where information about the projects being undertaken by one ministry or government agency was confined to that ministry or agency. This meant that other agencies would not know about those activities, including the challenges faced and lessons learned from similar projects. By sharing information and knowledge you are not only able to learn from each other, but you are also able to avoid common pitfalls encountered by others as you realise your respective projects.

Thirdly, you are collectively able to develop implementation strategies in order to chart the way forward. I therefore hope that you will institutionalise seminars and workshops like this.

Ladies and Gentlemen ,

The economic pillar comprising the productive sectors that make direct contributions to the overall growth is closely related to the other pillars. For example, we cannot industrialize if we do not have adequate energy or if we have insufficient infrastructure in the form of Ports, Roads, Railways, Pipelines and Airports. Equally, the role of the social and political pillars cannot be overstated. Education, training, health and good environment are all essential requirements for human capital development. Human capital and the development of skills and knowledge are key elements in the social pillar. Similarly, the productive sectors of the economic pillar cannot prosper and realize growth if the political situation is not very stable. Democracy, rule of law, security and constitutionalism are critical issues in the political pillar that all have direct impact on the growth of the GDP. Potential investors are attracted by democracy and adherence to the rule of law. This is why the pillar is significant for the success of the productive sectors.

Ladies and Gentlemen

I am very happy and would like to commend the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat and the Directorate of the Economic Pillar for conceiving this information and knowledge-sharing initiative. Indeed, sharing knowledge and captures of lessons learned is a vital component of knowledge management, something that is a necessity in any knowledge-based economy. We know very well that the trend in the world today is that knowledge and information have become the main factors of production that create competitiveness and productivity of nations such as ours.

With that, let me now take the opportunity to officially declare this workshop open.

Thank you