Raila will attend a forum on China-Africa cooperation/XINHUA-File
He will attend the 5th Ministerial Conference of the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation and sign a number of agreements with Chinese leaders.
Odinga is scheduled to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on Wednesday morning.
Speaking before leaving the country, Odinga said that although his mission is to attract more investments into the country, he would also discuss arrangements that he feels have not worked well for Kenya in the area of trade with China.
“We import a lot of manufactured equipment like tractors, ploughs and harvesters. I feel that we should by now be having a tractor manufacturing plant here in Kenya. There is no reason why we should be importing tractors from China year in year out. These are some of the things we want to engage the Chinese on,” the PM said.
“We should have a fertilizer manufacturing plant here instead of importing the product from China which causes delays and poor harvests,” he added.
Prior to the meeting with premier Wen, Prime Odinga will hold separate meetings with the CEO of Star Times group/Pan-Africa Network group, president of the China Communications Construction Company and the President of Sino Hydro Corporation.
In the afternoon, Odinga will attend the 4th China-Africa Entrepreneurs Conference and later pay a courtesy call on the President of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema before meeting with the vice president of the China Petroleum pipeline Bureau.
On Thursday July 19, the PM will attend the opening ceremony of the 5th Ministerial conference of the forum for China-Africa Co-operation and later meet separately with the Vice President of the Peoples’ Republic of China Xi Jinping and the president of China Academy of Space Technology before attending a banquet hosted for African leaders by President Hu Jintao.
On Friday, Odinga will leave Beijing for Shanghai where he will meet with the municipality’s governor, mayor and party officials.
The premier will thereafter meet with ZPMC Group with other consortium members on the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor Project (LAPSSET).
Later in the evening Odinga will tour Huawei R&D centre and Shanghai Yangshan Port.
On Saturday, he will depart Shanghai for Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, where he will meet the governor and sign a memorandum of understanding between the Government of Kenya and China Jiangxi Corporation for international Economic and Technical Co-operation.
The MoU is for the development of solar/diesel power plant in Kenya and for a concessional loan for the construction of Mbita-Sindo-Magunga-Karungu-Masara road and Sindo-Nyandiwa-Sori road.
Odinga will also sign an another MoU between the Government of Kenya and Zhongmei engineering group for a concessional loan for the construction of Narok-Maasai Mara (C12) to connect with Narok-Mau Narok(C57) road.
He will later meet with the CEO of China Jiangxi Corporation for international Economic and Technical Co-operation and the CEO of Zhongmei engineering Group Ltd.
On Sunday, the premier will depart Shanghai for Guangzhou where he will hold press briefing on Monday, July 23 before departing for Kenya.
The plane carrying the Prime Minister and his entourage is expected at the Jomo Kenyatta International airport on Tuesday July 24 at 7.05pm.
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