Trade Minister Amos Kimunya says the current global economic crisis could affect the local economy.

Kimunya who addressed the American Chamber of Commerce of Kenya, monthly luncheon however said, there are signs of an early recovery that could see Kenya's economic growth rise to 3 per cent from the envisaged 2 per cent this year.

Kimunya said the local economy's rebound will depend on how fast the worst hit markets around the globe recover from the devastating effects of the economic recession.

"The financial crisis may slow down Kenya's growth rate, but we are in a strong position to weather the current down turn and continue the trend of positive growth that has occurred in the past few years," said Kimunya.

The Minister said the government is committed to gradual reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers and eventually the progressive liberalization of trade in services in order to attract more players into the sectors dealing in trade in services.

"Kenya has become a leading financial and transport hub in the region, and the national carrier, Kenya Airways, has expanded its services tremendously in the region," said the Minister.

The Trade Minister further noted that the government has moved and approved the transformation of the Export Processing Zones Programs into Special Economic Zones, noting that this will cover a broad range of activities like export processing zones, free trade zones, science and technology parks, information technology parks and free trade ports.

Kimunya urged the American investors to take advantage of the good will being shown by the government in developing infrastructure to form joint ventures with Kenyans and realize the good returns on investment that are anticipated.

The Minister said Kenya will in August host the eighth Agoa Forum at which it is expected that Kenya will receive the much needed exposure while at the same time accord Kenyan business people an opportunity to interact with the others from the African continent who are beneficiaries of the Agoa pact.

Elsewhere. the price of food, water, and energy in recent years has increased dramatically at the global, regional and local levels with devastating economic and social consequences, industrialization minister Henry Kosgey has said.

" Industrial development is the key pillar of Vision 2030 and the government of Kenya desires to have an economically stable, healthy and productive nation and engineers therefore should come up with the best strategies to achieve this" added Kosgei.

Speaking on behalf of the Prime minister during the launch of a conference by Institution of engineers of Kenya (IEK) at a Nairobi hotel, Kosgey said the country recently witnessed animals dying due to lack of water and just the other day an alert of cholera, which is a water-borne disease, was issued hence the country was rated as a water deficiency country making the conference necessary.

The energy security provision in Kenya is threatened due to the high petroleum prices. This highly affects the digital villages since the electricity penetration of the nation currently stands at only about 15 percent of the population of 37 million, said Kosgei.

He further added that his ministry had drawn a national industrial master plan on Agro processing, Agro-machinery, Electric and Electrics, Information and Communication technology (ICT) which will be launched soon to identify target sub-sectors for the nation's development.

Kosgei personally urged the government through the ministry of Roads to ensure Kenyans benefited from engineer's programmes to empower self-employment.

The conference that will end on Friday will be discussing the challenges of 21st century on food, water, and energy and security.

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