Improved political and commercial connections between Kenya and Indonesia are being used to gain access to each other's regional trading blocs and increase export markets. Several cooperation agreements were inked in the fields of energy, health, agriculture, textiles and apparel, and security this week during the visit of Indonesian President Joko Widodo to Kenya.
Pertamina Geothermal Energy, located in Jakarta, has already reached a deal to build a geothermal plant in Longonot with Kenya's Africa Geothermal International Limited (Agil).
Kenyan President William Ruto stated that Nairobi will make use of the strengthened links with Jakarta to reduce Kenya's trade imbalance with Indonesia. Meanwhile, Kenya is also interested in entering the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market, one of the biggest shared markets in the Asia-Pacific region.
“Kenya will be seeking the support of Indonesia to penetrate the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a fast-growing trade bloc in Asia,” said a statement from State House on Monday.
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This is a component of Kenya's efforts to increase the size of its export markets in order to assist in closing the trade deficit and relieve pressure on the foreign currency market.
Kenya's trade balance with the three biggest ASEAN economies, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore, is now negative due to Nairobi's imports from those nations being up to ten times larger than its exports. Indonesia also wants to join Comesa and the East African Community.
"Kenya is the first in this domanial side, access Kenya, access the many other countries in the region," Rendra Kusumawardana, First Secretary in charge of Economic Affairs at the Indonesian embassy in Nairobi, told The EastAfrican, where this report was seen.