The Chinese government has told Kenyans to get used to trade imbalance and high public debt levels as the country is far from being industrialised.
Visiting envoy for Sino-African relations Zhou Yuxiao dismissed critics of China's massive loans to Kenya, stating that Kenya was not yet manufacturing enough products to fix the trade imbalance.
“In this world, striking an absolute balance is not possible. In Kenya, you are at the first stage of industrialisation, so there are certain things you need (to buy). Initially, this imbalance is unavoidable but later, we can try to rebalance,” he stated on Monday.
Zhou stated that China had to contend with a new challenge of finding markets for products after they succeeded in industrialization.
“When I was a kid, the biggest problem was how to buy things because there was a shortage. Now, we have a headache in finding where to sell.
[caption caption="Zhou Yuxiao at a past lecture"]
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“This situation did not just drop from the sky. Industrialisation helped us to be where we are,” he noted.
Zhou was in the country to market the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, with this year's event to be held in Beijing in September.
He has previously served as China's ambassador to countries such as Nigeria, Liberia and Zambia.
China is Kenya's largest creditor, accounting for 57 percent of the Sh587 Billion external debt.
“Too much trade imbalance is not good for China either. And we are launching a specific policy targeting least developed countries to find ways of selling their products to China,” Zhou noted.
[caption caption="Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa"]
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