[CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY]

Preliminary draft

STATEMENT BY

HON NETTY BALDEH

ACP CO-PRESIDENT OF THE ACP-EU JOINT PARLIAMENTARYASSEMBLY

at the opening ceremony of the

32ND SESSION OF THE ACP-EU JOINT PARLIAMENTARYASSEMBLY

Kenyatta International Conference Centre

Nairobi, Kenya

19 December 2016

Page 1

STATEMENT BY HON. NETTY BALDEH, ACP CO-PRESIDENT OFTHE ACP-EU JOINT PARLIAMENT AT THE 32ND SESSION OF THE

ASSEMBLY, NAIROBI, KENYA, 19 DECEBER 2016

H.E. Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya

Hon. Justin Muturi President of the National Assembly of Kenya

Hon. Ekwe Ethuro, President of the Senate of Kenya

Co-Presidents of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Hon. LouisMichel

Hon. Lindsay F.P. Grant, President-in-Office of the ACP Council,

Hon. Lukas Parizek President-in-Office of the EU Council

Hon. Members of the JPA

Co-Secretaries-General of the JPA

Distinguished invited guests

It is an honour for me personally and on behalf of the ACPParliamentary Assembly to have this privilege of addressing you on thisoccasion.

Allow me, first of all, to thank you, President Kenyatta, for havingspared the time from your affairs of State to grace our Assembly withyour presence. Through you, I would like to thank the Government,Parliament, and people of Kenya for having offered to host this sessionof the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. The warmth andhospitality of the Kenyan people is well known and it is good when wehave the opportunity to experience this for ourselves.

Page 2

Our gratitude also go to the Speaker of the Parliament and his staff forall the arrangements they have made for our convenience and workingconditions and for their collaboration in preparations for this meeting. Itwould be remiss of me not to recognise the tireless efforts in thisinstance and good working relationship that we have had with Kenya’srepresentatives to the JPA, Hon. Joyce Laboso, a former Co-President ofthis Joint Parliamentary Assembly and Senator Kembi-Gitura.

I also wish to pay tribute to the Kenyan Government and its people forthe hard-fought peace and political stability that this country enjoysdespite internal and external challenges it has faced in the past, and theconstant menace of terrorism.

Mr. President,

The ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly is the visible manifestationof partnership, consultation and political dialogue between the peoplesof the ACP States and the European Union. The Assembly provides aforum for elected representatives to scrutinise, and express their viewson, the conduct of the ACP-EU Partnership. The range of themes on theagenda of this session encompasses pertinent political, social andeconomic issues that collectively and individually confront us.

Ultimately, our discussions are about people, not abstract themes orstatistics, but concern humanity in general. The debate on the impact ofhurricane Matthew on Haiti is a good case in point. On October 4, 2016,hurricane Matthew hit Haiti leaving widespread damage, destroyedaround 200,000 homes and left 1.4 million people in need ofhumanitarian aid. Monetary damage was estimated at US$1.89 billion.

Page 3

As is true for every such case, we cannot pretend that we can resolve allthe challenges that the country faces, but can we assist them with themeans to start over according to what they themselves are able toaccomplish.

Despite all the difficulties occasioned by the hurricane, Presidentialelections were held in a largely peaceful environment on 27 October, inwhich Mr. Jovenel Moïse won the election in the first round with morethan 50% of the vote. We wish the President success for the recovery anddevelopment of his country.

The post-electoral situation in Gabon, which is the subject of aresolution, is informed by concern for the political stability of thecountry after its Presidential elections held in August 2016. ThisAssembly has in the past adopted Resolutions on the impact of electoralsystems and processes on the strengthening of democracy. We shall alsohave a debate on Constitutional limits on Presidential terms, which is adifficult subject, and I think that the views on the ACP and EU sidesmay not necessarily coincide, and for the most part, it is due tomisunderstandings of Constitutional systems and electoral laws and thefundamental issues at play in several ACP States, which are stillevolving.

Mr. President, Hon. Members,

I personally, and my colleagues here, are concerned about theunfortunate turn of events in my country the Gambia followingPresidential elections held on 1 December 2016. I hope that with theassistance and efforts of Heads of State from the region, the situationwill be resolved peacefully to avoid loss of lives and political instabilityin the country.

Page 4

Moving on to social and economic issues, one of the topics is challengesfor family farming and small scale agriculture in ACP states. However,this is an issue that is equally relevant to the EU.

A European Parliament policy report stated that family farms are maincontributors to food security, providing an uninterrupted supply of highquality diverse produce. They also enhance the vitality of the ruraleconomy.

The situation is equally true for ACP family farms, especially in terms ofaccess to farming resources such as land and capital, and access tomarkets. Access to financial capital, especially via formal channels, isoften expensive for small farmers, who are unwilling to risk their land ascollateral.

Mr. President,

This Assembly is strongly committed to the attainment of thesustainable development goals and the importance of domestic resourcemobilisation to finance programmes for the realisation of the goals. It isfor this reason that we are concerned about the impact of illicit financialflows on development finance.

Illicit financial flows in ACP and EU States may serve to conceal illegalactivities and evade taxes. Because of the increased integration offinancial markets, their economic and political significance of illicitfinancial flows has grown. Transnational corporations are well knownfor aggressive tax avoidance which may not necessarily be illegal, theyexploit regulatory weaknesses in national legal systems and lead toconsiderable losses in public revenues in the countries hosting thecorporate groups concerned. The European Commission recently ruledthat mobile phone and software company, Apple, owed the IrishGovernment, where it is headquartered, 16 billion euros in back taxes.

Page 5

The organisation Global Financial Integrity (GFI) estimates that in 2013,US$1.1 trillion left developing countries in illicit financial outflows.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who heads the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, has said that Africancountries need closer collaborators and coordination in efforts to dealwith the problem. During a media briefing in Nairobi on September 15,2015, President Mbeki stated that Kenya, for instance, had lost anestimated 160 billion shillings up to the year 2011 in illicit financialflows.

Mr. President, Hon. Members,

Another issue that has an impact on the attainment of the SustainableDevelopment Goals is trade. We shall have an eminent son of Kenya,Mr. Mukhisa Kituyi, the Director-General of UNCTAD, to lead thediscussions on this topic. He is on record as having stated that trade canhelp countries to meet the new Sustainable Development Goals. But iftrade is to enable the kind of sustainable development that leaves no onebehind, the right conditions must first be put in place.

The horticultural industry in Kenya, which as the subject of one of ourworkshops, is a good example of how trade can contribute to povertyeradication. Horticulture has continued to be one of the fastest growingsub sectors in Kenya's export sector, growing at over 7% annually,earning the country US $ 1 billion annually, employing about twomillion, most of them small-scale growers who constitute 80 per cent ofproducers. This has direct and indirect effects on the alleviation ofpoverty and provides higher incomes to small scale farmers.

Page 6

Mr. President,

Being in your beautiful country, we shall have an opportunity tounderstand better some of the development initiatives being undertakenby your Government during the debate with national authorities on roleof infrastructure development in regional integration.

The East African Development Bank has stated that East Africa is thefastest growing sub-region on the continent, while its infrastructure isone of the least developed in Africa.

Infrastructure development is thus paramount for the sub-region toreach its full potential. A good example is the Single Gauge Railwayproject which is expected to be completed by 2017, which will connectcountries in the region via oil refineries, ports and railway lines.Although the focus of the discussion is on the East African region, theprinciples at play are applicable to other regions, such as the Pacific andthe Caribbean, where the great distances between the islands are one ofthe greatest challenges for regional integration.

Mr. President, Hon. Members,

I am confident that, as we have done in the past, we shall devote ourconsiderable individual and collective experiences and knowledge topositively bear on all our deliberations. We shall not agree all the time,but even when we disagree, I hope that all the Members will have thegrace to respect views contrary to their own. In the end, I hope that shallhave gone some way towards fulfilling one of the objectives of thisAssembly, which is to promote democratic processes through dialogueand consultation, facilitate greater understanding between the peoplesof the European Union and those of the ACP States and raise publicawareness of development issues.

Page 7

Mr. President, Hon. Members,

I thank you for your kind attention and I hope that we shall have asuccessful session.