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Germany to support Kenya’s technical training institutions

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 10 – The German Government will support Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions in the country in a bid to build capacity for the country’s manufacturing industry.

According to Dr. Klaus Liebig, KfW Bank Country Director, the European nation will follow through on its promises to support Kenya achieve a middle-income status through industrialization starting 2017.

“Starting with this year, the German Government will specifically support initiatives to support technical training,” said Liebig on Monday during the Wings to Fly scholarships award ceremony held at the Kasarani Indoor Arena, adding that Kenya and Germany agreed “to step up efforts in this (technical) area which is sometimes neglected.”

In April last year, during a State visit to Germany, President Uhuru Kenyatta acknowledged the vital role the nation – which is Kenya’s fourth largest foreign investor – plays in the country development as he rooted for concessions from Berlin to help strike a balance in trade between the two countries.

President Kenyatta took note of the investment opportunities available in the mining, oil, and gas exploration, and production sectors while making a case for the need to address the existing trade imbalances in favour of Germany.

According to Liebig, Germany is keen on investing in Kenya’s automobile industry with the latest investment being the production of Volkswagen in country.

“After receiving world-class technical training, we will be able to produce world-class cars in Kenya and I think this is filling an important gap in the system here,” said the President in a joint press conference after meeting his host Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The resumption of production of cars by the German carmaker – four decades after it paused the production of its cars – is seen as a boast in the nation’s vehicle assembly industry which remains unbeaten in the region.

During the announcement in September 2016, at State House Nairobi, after a meeting with Volkswagen South Africa’s Chief Executive Thomas Schafer, Kenyatta commended the firm for pitching its tent at the Kenya Motor Vehicles Manufactures plant in Thika to produce its Vivo model, which will now join other brands being assembled in the country which include Toyota, Isuzu, Nissan and Mitsubishi.

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