Today we're speaking to Geoff Tooth Australia's High Commission to Kenya.
Hi Geoff.
Now, Geoff, you're an Ambassador a High Commissioner Permanent Representative -
why is that in how does it work?
The reason behind it is that, um, I'm
High Commissioner to four countries, that's Kenya
Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda and I'm Ambassador to three non-British
Commonwealth countries - South Sudan, Somalia and Burundi.
South Sudan I'm the first Australian Ambassador to, actually, because it's the world's
newest country.
But I'm also Permanent Representative to a number of UN agencies. Nairobi
where I'm based is the fourth UN city after the Vienna, Geneva, New York
and uh...
there is located the United Nations environment program and
the uh...
you UN Habitat, as well as some
very big UN agencies
like WFP. That's not the headquarters but because of their
coverage they have a big involvement there.
And it works because I've got some very hardworking staff.
That's how we managed to do it. Seventy-four very good
Australians and Kenyas and uh... people from other countries in the region
allow us to work on Australia's interests with both those countries and
those agencies.
There's also
an advantage to it and because the east African community
nations and the five countries
of uh... Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya Burundi and Rwanda
are working to become a union, so
it makes a lot of sense us covering
those countries as well so there's some advantages to it and
it allows for a very interesting work environment.
Australia first established diplomatic relations in East Africa fifty years ago
starting with Kenya and Tanzania.
What are those relationships like now fifty years later?
Very good
we have friendly relationships with all those countries, the five
of the East African community. South Sudan in particular because of the
the uh... very strong diaspora community we have.
Somalia of course being a failed state that's a
more difficult relationship to have, but uh...
with the other countries very strong indeed.
We don't have the sort of
enormously substantial interest that some countries have, including of course
Great Britain because a lot of those are
former colonies of Great Britain or France
and some of the other colonial powers
but we're seen in a very positive light by these countries.
We've had solid people-to-people links um... Australian's do some wonderful things in
these countries.
In the NGO community, working for the United Nations as volunteers
and uh... we're good tourist as well, we're very keen to go to that place,
and we've also got new business links
which are building very strongly
and the education links are strong, Kenya's our
second-biggest education market
and we've... in recent years we've had a deliberate policy of
reengaging with Africa and I don't think that's it's more obvious than in these
countries that we're now really
focused on Australia's interests there and in their interests in Australia
and uh... it's it's going forward in a very positive way.
Geoff, moving on now to the trade relationship between Australia and East Africa
what are the best prospects for improving those relationships?
We're strongest in the mining sector across africa in fact uh...
yeah, it's it's a very, very substantial investment involvement now we have
at last estimate two hundred and forty Australia mining companies
operating across african, and some fifty billion dollars investment and
this is where we're really showing the way the strength of the Australian economy
has much to do of course with our mining sector
and...
that's the cutting edge of our involvement in the business
community in Africa.
So, for example in Kenya there is now a very positive
mining program and mining company called
Base Resources which is developing what will
uh... a titanium which would double Kenya's mining income by itself.
There's another company called Aviva Gold which is uh...
making some very encouraging signs which, Kenya's mining industry hasn't
gone very far over the last fifty years of uh... nationhood.
Tanzania is a different story, there are twenty six different mining companies
that are already there.
So that's on its way, there's
growth potential everywhere, in all the countries that we have
in East Africa something we're looking at closely working in mining.
Elsewhere there are other opportunities as well it's green fields for Australia
but already their Australian IT companies on the ground,
Australian education providers
are everywhere looking for
looking for good students, good quality students to come in and study in Australia.
So there are a lot of trade opportunities there, and I mentioned earlier agriculture is an
area that we see also much more
potential because our skills, our capacity to sell some
great technology we're already heavily involved in the
agricultural research institutes in Africa and I think that down
the track will see a lot of opportunities for strength
agriculture companies.
Of course last year we saw terrible scenes when Africa experienced
shocking drought and a humanitarian crisis as a result of that.
What did Australia do in that case to help and what are we doing to make
sure that that situation doesn't happen again?
Australians should be very proud of
what they did and what Australia did in response to that it was one of the worst
humanitarian disasters in history impacting on thirteen million people
Australia was amongst the most generous countries in responding to it.
A very large government contribution but also enormous support from the Australian
community. Fundraising events all over australia and
a really substantial contribution.
So that helped
ensure that uh... this crisis which course impacts most vulnerable
and in the main, the poor children uh...
the uh... nomadic peoples of of these areas. It particularly hit
Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia South Sudan,
those sort of countries which were already extremely marginal and vulnerable in areas uh...
The Australian contribution in terms of immediate humanitarian assistance we
were amongst the fastest to move as well
then Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd made a visit to Somalia and we
really worked very closely with the WFP, UNHCR and other major
donors and Australian NGOs to get on the ground.
But this, while that immediate...
the immediacy of the humanitarian crisis is over there's always
the potential for another one, there are a lot of solid indicators
the next one could be even worse down the track, climate change
is impacting on the region in a big way.
Agriculture is becoming more and more marginal in some areas, population growth is
putting more and more pressure on the land
an indigenous nomadic ways of life of dying out.
So the Australian aid programs, the Australian experts uh... agricultural experts and
others are working on ways of developing resilience in these communities.
Some very innovative ideas from stock insurance and other,
and other programs are under way
and the Australian aid vote isn't just confined to the immediate
humanitarian response in the providing food and water and so on to those
in disaster situation. It's looking at ways to alleviate
disaster next time and what this did show
in areas where resilience work was done uh...
whether by UNDP, including through australian funding,
the impact of the drought was far less
and so those lessons are going to help
next time around and Australia's going to be part of that.
There's a steady flow of Australian tourists who visit east africa and and then african
students that come to australia.
Are those numbers still increasing?
Yeah, I think the strength of the Australian dollar, Kenya
is on everyone's bucket list to travel to I think uh... the Age just had
Kenya and Tanzania, the Serengeti
and the other areas as amongst the the hottest places to take...
be a tourist now.
As I said, the strength of the Australian dollar means people have more money to go to those of
the places and there are more traffic routes opening up uh...
We now have a co-chair between Qantas and Kenya Airways
so we are seeing a substantial increase in in numbers traveling. The world's most
travelled man last year
ranked Kenya the number one country in the world to visit.
Disappointing for us and I think he ranked Australia third, but I disagree of
course about that.
But uh... so we are seeing more and more Australians coming uh... they're doing some
interesting things too it's not just pure tourism, of course the safari
parks of Kenya are your world famous
and world leading and extraordinary things to see there.
The coastal districts
a fabulous beaches and the like.
Not as good as australian beaches but they still great and there's a lot of history to see
But Australians are also getting involved in volunteer tourism and going to see
development sites as well. We have some Australians doing extraordinary
things in these countries and
one I can think of is a woman called Emma
who's developed a school in Tanzania in Arusha in Tanzania and Australians are
coming there, staying at a couple of days before they climb Mount Kilimanjaro
or visit the Serengeti and experiencing what a
Tanzanian student goes through
and they're getting to visit the village's structures and seeing all that and uh...
they're becoming more engaged in development activities as a response
that's just one part of
uh... what we're seeing and much more active tourism and more socially aware tourism
and there are a lot of opportunities in the part of the world I cover.
On the other side of things there are Kenyan tourists coming to
Australia as well. There's a growing middle class in east africa which are looking for
tourism opportunities and we're of course encouraging them to come and spend their dollars in Australia
but also, we have a very
strong and long history of providing education to the
to students in in East Africa particularly Kenya which is our number two market
the students in africa.
They, um... they find Australian academic
institutions not only very good in providing them a very practical and focused
education but they find the Australian
way of life and attitude to life
much closer to African than I think they...
they find some of our competitors. I think they like the weather more as well too
and all those sort of things that uh... it helps us.
The Australian dollar as a reverse impact of course on that, in that way
in the way it helps Australian tourists afford
come to Africa, it doesn't really help Australian...
African students come to Australia. But they're still coming they recognize
just how good Australia's education is and the opportunities it provides and they're
still coming in this to a lot of interest.
We mentioned earlier that you're accredited to a number of countries in East Africa
and of course two of them, South Sudan and Somalia
have fairly difficult security situations.
What can Australia do there to help?
South Sudan and Somalia are in
serious security have serious security issues that both feature very
prominently on the
UN Security Council agendas and uh...
uh... there is constant talk.
There are a lot of grounds for optimism though
But, we, Australia can have a very positive role
in both countries and we've already done
quite a lot we support
the African Union's involvement in Somalia for example we have
Australian troops on the ground in South Sudan in peacekeeping roles and Australian Federal Police.
They're doing important jobs there and we have been involved in
Sudan and South Sudan for some time at that level.
We will continue to look for opportunities to do that. I mentioned earlier the
South Sudanese diaspora in Australia.
thirty thousand South Sudanese... up to thirty thousand South Sudanese in Australia
came here as part of our refugee program going back to
be involved in the new world's newest state and help it
establish its uh... statehood
uh... these uh... these are important players and people we can work with.
We will work with uh...
the international community, look for more opportunities. We are becoming
more engaged in some of, uh...
some of the institutions that uh...
are working on Somalia and South Sudan. Our aid vote is
on the increase in allowing us more latitude to do programs and projects in both countries.
You mentioned the high number of tourists from Australia who travel to East Africa.
Do you have any advice for the end before they leave>
Well they should definitely register,
insure and subscribe. And to register that means register with the
smartraveller.gov.au
which ensures that your records, your travel records, your address, your contact
details are available to the uh... to Australian High Commission in
Nairobi if something goes wrong and we can help you.
Insure just make sure that you have travel insurance, always vital
and no matter where you are traveling in the world, Africa, things can go
wrong, you can lose you can lose things you get need hospital care those
things can lead to
extraordinary costs if you don't if you aren't insured.
You may need to be medivaced. That is a major hit to your
travel budget if you, if you don't... if you're not insured.
And uh...
And subscribe and that means subscribe to travel updates so that we can
send to you an update on the, if something goes wrong
uh... ninety-nine point nine nine percent of the time nothing will go
wrong you have a nice fabulous time, amazing memories, but in that
that little percentage of time that something can go wrong the best thing
is to do is be prepared and
they prepared by uh...
by registering, insuring and subscribing.
Very smart move.
And secondly we can also use that to
uh... that information that we get to tell you about
important events like ANZAC day we hold there..
there's a major ANZAC day ceremony in Nairobi for example, but also across the
East Africa and if you're travelling around that time a very moving
Australian event
to participate in we put on their website as well and so I
encourage you to look at our website, Australians to look at our website and when
travelling as well.
But most of all have a great time,
that's the best advice.
And just finally what words would you use to encapsulate Australia's
relationship with the countries of East Africa?
Friendly and with great potential.
Thanks very much for that Geoff.
Thank you
and that was Geoff Tooth, Australia's High Commission to Kenya