UAE-Kenyan joint commission wraps up inaugural meeting.


NAIROUBI, Apr. 9th, 2010: The inaugural session of the UAE-Kenyan Joint Commission, which started on April 6th, has been concluded Thursday in the Nigerian capital.
H.H Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, UAE Foreign Affairs Minister and his Kenyan counterpart Moses Wetangula, co-chaired the commission and signed the minutes of the meeting which saw a decision to hold the next meeting in Abu Dhabi.In a speech at the closing ceremony, Sheikh Abdullah emphasized "the need for continuing and following up on the commission's work and implementing its recommendations as soon as possible.""Relations with Kenya are based on solid foundations of mutual respect and cooperation and are constantly growing thanks to the support rendered by the prudent leaderships of the two countries President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and H.E President Mwai Kibaki," Sheikh Abdullah said."Over the recent decades, our economic, trade, investment and technical relations have seen growth. The inaugural meeting of the joint commission lays a solid foundation to expand bilateral cooperation. This meeting provides a valuable chance to explore more opportunities and venues for investments which would add to the advantages of both economies for more growth as well as develop relations and move forward to realize our aspirations with an emphasis on the role of private sectors."Trade between the UAE and Kenya reached around AED 2 billion in 2008, he noted.Speaking on the agenda of the meeting, he said the first round of negotiations discussed a double-taxation agreement, a mechanism for exchanging data on investments, commercial regulations for trade between the UAE and Kenya as well as cooperation on animal production, agricultural investments, civil aviation and marketing UAE petrochemical products on the Kenyan markets.Over two days, the joint committee discussed political, economic and trade cooperation as well as prospects in areas such as tourism, humanitarian operations, investments, higher education, banking, finance, transport, animal resources, environmental protection and agricultural production.

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