<div dir="ltr">Daktari,<br>This response is a clear sign of top notch leadership.<br>Thx for clarifying for those of us who were in the dark.<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 8:07 PM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bitange@jambo.co.ke">bitange@jambo.co.ke</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Dear All,<br>
I am in Malaysia. This country's development is awesome. Their<br>
e-applications are indeed something we all aught to learn from. You can<br>
see the positive energy to move their country out of poverty in their<br>
eyes. We must find ways to emulate these people and move away from self<br>
interest that is tearing our country apart.<br>
<br>
Prior to my travel here, I made some statements regarding local ownership<br>
of ICT investments with the aim of reviewing our policy. This is what I<br>
am employed to do and I am still consulting with stakeholders to see how<br>
to advance the policy change. Specifically, I argued as follows:<br>
• The drop in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in our sector is as a result<br>
of rigid policy on ownership of investments;<br>
• We must work toward attracting FDI if we have to sort out unemployment<br>
of our youth which has reached crisis levels;<br>
• Large ICT multinationals have requested exemptions to this policy and<br>
would rather have the local ownership through the stock market;<br>
• That those who have in the past purported to have the capacity to raise<br>
sufficient local capital have failed and cannot raise new capital thus<br>
compromising the competitiveness of these firms;<br>
• Protectionism leads to poor service and uncompetitive environment;<br>
• The problem of local equity participation can be summarized by the<br>
experience we went through during the search for the SNO – promises of<br>
non-existent funds and extortionism;<br>
• The absence of local equity participation in some foreign banks did not<br>
stop Equity Bank from growing phenomenally;<br>
• There is no threat to domination from foreigners since local firms have<br>
made great strides to eventually partner with multinationals from points<br>
of strength (read KDN/Altech; Safaricom/Onecom partnerships) and it is<br>
encouraging to see other local firms such as Access, Jamii, Wananchi etc<br>
coming up strongly that we don't need to require multinationals to seek<br>
for partners up front at the expense of our unemployed youths; and<br>
• My liberalist economic approach is what in my view would make our<br>
country considering that some decisions we made along the same lines have<br>
greatly impacted all our lives.<br>
Take for example the liberalization of International Gateways. There were<br>
threats to our lives that we could not survive to see the benefits. These<br>
were threats made by those who benefited from illegal terminations of<br>
calls through Telkom Network leading to losses in excess of one billion<br>
shillings per year. I am surprised that this move pains some people to<br>
date when we are enjoying lower tariffs with a more efficient Telkom. I<br>
have no regrets on Telkom reforms at all and I am sure you all know that I<br>
never run from any responsibility.<br>
<br>
The Libyan matter has never been an issue before considering the fact that<br>
this are standard MOUs that we sign regularly whenever we market Kenya out<br>
there as an investment destination. Yes I signed the MOU and the two ICT<br>
items in the MOU, that is, Telkom Kenya and Teams never went to Libyans<br>
since they lost in the bid process and rejected by local investors<br>
respectively. In the same MOU were Energy items and of course Grand<br>
Regency but MOUs are not sale agreements. We sign lots of these MOUs and<br>
even today here in Malaysia I have had to sign two. These are public<br>
documents accessible to any Kenyan and there is nothing to hide in the<br>
course of serving our country.<br>
<br>
I have never in my life met Moi and as far as I am concerned I have never<br>
crossed his path either in his business or himself as a person. The<br>
decision to extricate the Government from the Econet saga in my view saved<br>
the tax payers a great deal of money. I was not there when this matter<br>
started and I still do not understand the whole transaction but it makes<br>
great sense to remove the Government from any liability. If such a<br>
decision did not favour anybody, then the courts can settle and in any<br>
case, this matter is still sub judice.<br>
<br>
Back to policy. If you have noted, we are launching an average of two ICT<br>
firms per a week. Large BPO multinationals have told me to my face that<br>
until we sort out the local ownership issue, they are going elsewhere.<br>
These are firms that employ in excess of 30,000 BPO agents. Investment in<br>
the sector runs into billions of shillings which people like myself cannot<br>
even dream of raising even 1% (and this is true for many of us in Kenya).<br>
Do we let such opportunities slip by because we want to be nationalists?<br>
<br>
Regards<br>
<br>
<br>
Ndemo.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
----------------------------------------------<br>
This message has been scanned for viruses and<br>
dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is<br>
believed to be clean.<br>
---------------------------------------------<br>
"easy access to the world"<br>
<br>
</blockquote></div><br>
</div>