Nairobi, Sunday, July 14, 2019:It is all systems go as Kenya readies to host Africa’s leading premier small and Medium enterprises gathering, the Kenya Trade Week and COMESA High Level Business Summit dubbed Source 21, from Monday 15th to Sunday 21st July 2017. Preparations for the event are complete with delegates expected to start streaming into the Kenya capital from this weekend.
The High-Level Business Summit will be attended by heads of state, regional and international businesses leaders, visitors who operate in the region and those interested in exploring opportunities in the 21 COMESA member states.
The events are joint initiatives of the COMESA Business Council (CBC), the government of Kenya, the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, the private sector and the COMESA Secretariat.
A presidential roundtable has been organized on the first day of the summit which will bring together heads of state, business leaders and regional policy makers to set the pace for the week long business parley and trade fair.
The Trade Fair will run on the margins of the Summit.
It will host pavilions representing all COMESA countries featuring quality products and services that are currently breaking ground in terms of value, quality, innovation and demand in regional and international markets, across all sectors.
The presidential roundtable will provide a unique platform for regional heads of state to share their best practices and knowledge and to address critical issues for agriculture and manufacturing sectors against emerging concepts of digitalization and strategies for spearheading regional and continental integration.
Key issues on their agenda will include the regional trade frameworks such as the tripartite and the Africa continental free trade area which are expected to increase intra-Africa trade by 52% in 2022 and facilitate industrialization, driving sustainable economic development.
Speaking in Lusaka, ahead of the event, Assistant Secretary General of COMESA, Amb Kipyego Cheluget described the event as timely coming at the time when COMESA is celebrating its 25th anniversary and at the same time marking one year since the admission of two new members, Tunisia and Somalia to the regional, that brought the total membership of COMESA to 21.
“It is through public -private engagement, partnerships and such trade fairs where we can work towards the common goals and strategies to address competitiveness of local industries and increase regional trade and regional exports into global markets,” he said.
For businesses, the event will promote engagement on new markets, potential business partnerships through showcasing and sampling of new products from the region. The aim is to promote and encourage more consumption of quality African products in the regional markets.