Kenya with strong economy will no longer take financial aid from Netherlands

Kenyan government has said that it will not take any financial assistance from the Dutch government and only be its trading padrtner.


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 01-05-2018 17:04 IST | Created: 01-05-2018 16:46 IST
Kenya with strong economy will no longer take financial aid from Netherlands
Kenyan ambassador met the Dutch king at his residence in Hague. (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
  • Country:
  • Kenya
  • Netherlands

Kenya will no longer take financial assistance from the Netherlands as it feels its economy has become strong enough.

The ambassador from Kenya met the Dutch government officials at the Kings residence on Friday, he said that the Dutch government will remain a very important trading partner to Kenya and that the strong relationship between both the countries will remain strong.

Ambassador Frans Makken said to Star News reporters "We will seek to focus more on enhancing trade and in doing so, we will work more with the private sector so that the two states benefit, not just giving aid.”

Makken also said, "As Kenya graduated into the league of lower-middle-income countries, the Netherlands Embassy transformed its traditional aid programme into a mature, business-like bilateral relationship in which the Sustainable Development Goals and the ‘Big Four’ objectives are pursued through private sector development, trade and investment."

Earlier in 2016, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Co-operation, Lilianne Ploumen has said that the Kenyan government did not need any further assistance after the year 2020 as their economy is growing at a steady rate and Kenya is now a middle-income country.

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