07 January 2010

China will finance the building of a second port in Kenya, a transport corridor and the upgrading of a railroad linking Kenya's Mombasa port and the Ugandan capital, a statement said Wednesday.

The second port is to be built in the coastal town of Lamu, said the statement from President Mwai Kibaki's office, but did not give figures.

Initially, the port was to be financed by Qatar under a deal to lease swathes of arable land to the Gulf state, but the agreement was shelved.

The road could provide a route to export Chinese oil from southern Sudan.

Kibaki, who met with China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi who visited the east African country, "welcomed the commitment that the government of the People's Republic of China has shown in the development of a second port at Lamu".

China also granted Kenya seven million dollars for "various projects in the country", the statement said.

"For Africa to further take off, it is very important to build up the infrastructure so that African countries can conduct intra-regional trade on a massive scale," Yang told reporters.

Sapa-AFP