NAIROBI, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said Thursday his government will deepen economic cooperation with Sudan, including boosting production of lower-cost sugar and expanding Nairobi's tea exports to the Arab nation.
Kenyatta who spoke when he met Kamal Ismael, special envoy of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir in Nairobi, recalled that during meetings with the Sudanese leader, they had agreed to collaborate more on sugar production, with Kenya learning from the technologies that have made Sudan one of the lowest-cost producers in the world.
According to a statement issued after the meeting, Kenyatta said he wanted to see an agreement for Kenya to learn from Sudan on expanded cotton farming come to fruition, because it was at the base of a plan to increase textiles and apparels manufacturing under the President's Big Four agenda of manufacturing, affordable housing, universal healthcare and food security.
The Kenyan leader has put food security and nutrition, affordable housing, increased manufacturing, and universal healthcare for all, at the heart of his agenda in his second-term of office, which started in earnest when he was sworn in November 2017.
Kenyatta also said Kenya could learn from Sudan's oil contracting and extraction arrangements, as it nears commercial production of its oils from the Lokichar fields in northern Kenya.
The Sudanese envoy had come to Nairobi to seek President Kenyatta's support for his candidature of the Executive Secretary of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
Ismael told the President that Sudan itself was committed to stronger Kenya-Sudan relations, and would this year increase its imports of Kenyan teas by 20 percent. Sudan is one of the leading buyers of Kenyan teas.
Sudan was also working with neighbors Chad, and other Arab nations to see how to increase availability of Kenyan teas in those countries, Ismael told President Kenyatta.
