NAIROBI, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) — The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to be held in Beijing this week provides an opportunity for Kenya to enhance bilateral trade with China while attracting new investors in key sectors of the economy, an official from an umbrella business lobby said Monday.
Cynthia Kamau, director of Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), said the country stands to gain from the 2024 FOCAC summit by focusing on increasing the volume of exports to China.
“At FOCAC, we are expecting many trade deals to be made. We are expecting to see interactions between our business people and Chinese businesses,” Kamau said on the sidelines of a briefing about the seventh Kenya International Industrial Expo slated for Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, from Sept. 12-14.
The three-day event, organized by Afripeak Expo Kenya Limited in collaboration with Kenya Investment Authority and KNCCI, would be held under the theme “Investing in Tomorrow-Trading for Prosperity Calls for Collaboration between Kenya and China.”
Kamau said that a delegation from the Kenyan business lobby will be attending the FOCAC summit, paying special attention to innovations and best practices that can be replicated locally to spur the growth of startups. She said the commerce lobby opened an office in 2023 in Changsha, the capital of central China’s Hunan Province, and plans to open satellite offices in Guangzhou and Shanghai to deepen trade with the Asian nation.
“We will be very focused and looking for these opportunities, listening to the conversations, and giving that information to our business partners in Kenya,” Kamau said.
She revealed that in the last eight months since KNCCI opened the Changsha office, Kenyan firms have secured business deals in China worth 300 million shillings (about 2.33 million U.S. dollars), involving mainly the tea sector.
“We even have companies that are already displaying their products in our office in China,” Kamau said, adding that business matchmaking between Chinese and Kenyan firms has intensified to explore strategic areas of cooperation.
Kenyan President William Ruto is leading a high-powered delegation comprising government officials and industry leaders to the 2024 FOCAC summit, themed “Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future.”
