According to UNCTAD Secretary General Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, the conference will have a huge impact in giving Kenya a global attention as well as bringing in new investors/PSCU
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 17- Kenya stands to reap huge from the 14th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which kicked off in Nairobi on Sunday.
According to UNCTAD Secretary General Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, the conference will have a huge impact in giving Kenya a global attention as well as bringing in new investors.
“We are bringing together visitors including heads of state and governments from all continents, more than hundred Ministers from around the World, CEOs of over four hundred companies, Mayors of mega cities, entrepreneurs and international public workers,” Kituyi says, “the success of the conference is important for our country and Africa as a whole.”
The conference will also be a major boost to the recovering tourism sector, with hotels in Nairobi expected to reap from the estimated foreign 7,000 delegates attending the conference.
The tourism sector has rebounded from a four-year slump to post a 12.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data on June 30, 2016.
At the same time, the conference will see announcements aimed at supporting the Kenya government in creating and growing the number of women entrepreneurs.
UNCTAD plans to put up a center where women entrepreneurs can be given a training of trainers course to guide others in business.
“We will be looking at how we can keep the promise of inclusive prosperity by giving the African woman an opportunity to realise her potential,” he said.
Meanwhile, activities that will run parallel to the conference are expected to also produce positive outcomes. For instance, the World Investment Forum brings together fund managers, investors, people looking for partnerships to start new enterprises, people looking for enterprises to buy, mergers and acquisitions.
“It is a matchmaking venue and if the $14 billion (Sh1.4trillion) in investments made in the last conference is anything to go by, it is evident that Kenya can derive phenomenal benefits from the investment tent,” Kituyi explains.
The trade summit comes at a time when Kenya has hosted global forums in the recent past which including, the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2015, opened by the U.S President Barrack Obama and the 10th World Trade Organisation Ministerial meeting in December 2015.
The 6th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) is set to take place in Nairobi, Kenya on August 27 to 28, 2016.
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