Chinese firm, China Wu Yi's Building Industrialization Research, Development and Production Base and Supermarket project will help Kenya achieve its industrial goals, a senior government official said on Saturday.
Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Adan Mohamed said that when the 101 million U.S. dollar investment is completed, it will revolutionize the construction sector.
"It will reduce both the cost and time of construction of buildings by 50 percent and hence increase the number of low cost houses constructed annually," Mohamed said during the ground breaking ceremony in Athi River which approximately 30 kilometers south of Nairobi.
Mohamed said that China Wu Yi will help to industrialize the building industry by introducing a new method of production.
He noted that the project is aligned to Kenya's National Development blue print, Vision 2030 that aims at transforming the country into a middle income country.
The CS said that the plant will help to fill in key gaps in the construction sector, which is key driver of the country's economic growth.
According to the 2016 Economic Survey, Kenya's building and construction sector grew by 14 percent in 2015.
Mohamed added that the investment comes at an appropriate time when the construction sector is experiencing rapid growth.
China Wu Yi Chairman Qiu Liangxin said that his firm began conducting a feasibility study and an environmental impact assessment study for the facility in early 2015.
"After all this restless work, China Wu Yi is now generally prepared for the construction of the project," Qiu said.
The project, which is expected to go into operation in June, 2017, will use advanced construction industrialization technology and equipment for the manufacturing of the varied precast concrete panels.
According to China Wu Yi, the facility will also provide local people with 500 to 800 jobs annually.
Qiu noted the facility will produce 150,000 square meters of building material or 1,500 sets of buildings annually which will meet the Chinese, European and Kenyan standards.
The chairman said that construction industrialization is a new technology that has been used in Europe and America for the past 80 years and will have a positive impact on Kenya's construction sector.
"We will bring to Kenya high-quality, low-cost, and environment-friendly housing products that will bring revolutionary changes to housing construction in Kenya and even East Africa," he added.
Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Kenya Yao Ming said that it has been three years since Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta visited China.
"While in China, he signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with China that has been the blueprint for future direction of China-Kenya cooperation," Yao said.
