[kictanet] Craft Silicon to Relocate

[Odhiambo Washington]

On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 10:03 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk>wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Yet another nail in the Konza coffin with the imminent departure of Craft
> Silicon to Singapore as a result of the finance bill which gave tax
> incentives to imported software and no corresponding incentives for local
> developers.
>
>
> http://www.nation.co.ke/Tech/ICT+firms+shun+Kenya/-/1017288/1483212/-/1sy894/-/index.html
>
>
> At this rate Nokia will relocate Virtual City to Denmark or Singapore if
> we continue to allow our laws to favour foreign firms at the expense of
> developing local capacity.  This development pours cold water on the recent
> establishment of a research lab by IBM as those who acquire the skills will
> not be able to be competitive locally.
>
> More disappointing is a statement by Huawei Kenya representative, Wind Li,
> that such incentives to foreign software developers will challenge locals
> to be more creative yet we all know that China shutdown it borders to
> foreign participation for over 50 years which resulted in their current
> positive growth.
>
> He added insult to injury by saying that removal of trade barriers is
> always good for a country's business development, this statement sounds a
> lot like what the western governments kept preaching to us during the
> height of the structural adjustment program.
>
> Regards
>
> PS.  China is now making it clear that they are here as the 3rd wave
> of colonizers of Africa.
>
> Robert Yawe
>
>
Two things stand out from my shallow reasoning on this, based on the fact
that I do not have the figures/reasons to support myself:

1. Minister Githae is not being advised properly. I should blame the ICT
Board (Paul Kukubo) for this, unless he says his organization's mandate
does not include promoting local developers.
2. There may be just a handful software development houses in KE, a number
which is seen as insignificant.

I don't see why same tax incentives were not extended to local software
developers. Maybe M$ pushed for this and arm-twisted the govt?? Decisions
aren't made in a vacuum, so there must be a hand to blame for this misnomer.

-- 
Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254733744121/+254722743223
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