By Kim Jae-won
Korea is telling Kenya to take what it has offered in long-term, low-interest government assistance, ignoring Nairobi’s pleas, a Kenyan envoy says.
A Korean state bank official, however, said that Kenya has reversed its consent on the program for no credible reason.
At the heart of the issue is Nairobi’s request for $50 million in aid for a technical and industrial training program, which was rejected by the Korean government. Seoul insists on Nairobi taking agricultural equipment.
The Korea Times obtained a copy of a letter sent by Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kenyan deputy premier, dated July 1 and addressed to Strategy and Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan, asking Seoul to consider the Kenyan request.
The Kenyan envoy stationed in Seoul said his government has not received a response or any suggestion to resolve the differences.
Ngovi Kitau, the Kenyan ambassador to Seoul, said that the country sent a couple of letters.
“We sent a letter to the (Korea) Eximbank last year, and the priority was Technical, Industrial, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (TIVET). And we sent another letter this year, which confirmed the priority,” said the ambassador in an interview with The Korea Times at his Seoul office last week.
He said that his government has not received any response from the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank), which manages loans of the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF), or the finance ministry that supervises allocations.
The ambassador compared Seoul’s approach to the stopgap measure of giving fish to the starving rather than teaching them how to fish. “You can give somebody a fish, or you can teach somebody how to fish.If you once learn how to fish, and then you can fish by yourself,” he said.
Kitau stressed that the TIVET program will help not just Kenya, but other neighboring African countries.
“Kenya is a member of the East African Community. If you look at Kenya by location, we have a seaport and there are many other neighboring African countries, such as Uganda, Somalia, Southern Sudan and Tanzania.”
The ambassador, who previously worked in the business sector before taking the diplomatic job, said that the bilateral relationship of the two countries is close despite some differences in the priority of the EDCF loan.
But, the Korea Eximbank said that it prefers agricultural program for the EDCF loans to the technical education project, saying the former more adequately meets the Lee Myung-bak government’s priority of green growth development.
“We put our assistance priority on the green growth project. In the Kenyan case, the agricultural program is more likely to fit the criteria,” said an official of the state-run bank.
The official also said that the Kenyan government had already agreed to get the EDCF loans in the agricultural program earlier this year but changed its stance, asking for technical and scientific training equipment.
A finance ministry official reacted rather sharply. “I cannot confirm whether we have got letters from Kenya, or what is our priority in providing the EDCF loans. It is a diplomatic matter that you have no business knowing about,” said Song In-hye, a deputy director at the finance ministry in charge of EDCF loans for African nations.