[kictanet] Craft Silicon to Relocate

Wed Aug 22 12:53:24 EAT 2012

Kivuva,
Yes we have started discussion with Treasury.  I just called Kamal (Craft
Silcon (CS) CEO)to ask him if it is true that he is moving to Singapore. 
Well he tells me that CS will always remain a Kenyan company and he is
here to stay.  He just opened another office in Singapore and Somalia.

We should be celebrating to see a Kenyan multinational spread its wings
throughout the globe.  Let us not go to Somalia when the market is mature.
 Taking an early rist pays greatly.  This what we need to spend time
talking.  The rest we can do.

Ndemo.

> Thank you Robert for bringing this up. It's good to see Dr. Ndemo is
> petitioning the government to give local players a better deal.
>
> You have a good point Washington. How many local software development
> firms exceed the $1M mark? That would be a good basis to gauge our
> ingenuity.
>
> Regards
>
> On 21/08/2012, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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
>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>> I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler.
>>
>
>
> --
> ______________________
> Mwendwa Kivuva
> For
> Business Development
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