Editor,

RE: "Chinese should start setting up plants in Africa” (The New Times, January 31).

It’s good to have variety of heavy equipment setting up shop in East Africa for purpose of variety and competition. It’s even better they are putting up assembly plants in East Africa especially in Kenya.

But what we want are manufacturing plants where various parts of vehicle can be manufactured across the region.

We could have engines made in Kenya, braking and steering system in Rwanda, cooling system in Tanzania and chassis in Uganda. Such a spread of production units can enable countries to specialize and develop comparative advantage hence bringing the costs down.

Tom