The Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt Mr. Khalid ElAbyad announces the launching of the second business and economic event dubbed ‘Egypt Kenya Business Bridge Forum’ in Nairobi.
Those events are in line with Egypt’s policy stated clearly by President Abdel Fattah El Sisito support and join hands with the Republic of Kenya to better engage cooperatively in all areas related to trade liberalization and investment promotion, especially those articulated during Egypt’s Chairmanship of COMESA.
The business forum is the output of the Economic strategy for Trade and Investment partnership with Kenya that the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) has promoted through The Egyptian Commercial Services (ECS).
The forum is organized by the Economic and Trade Bureau at the Egyptian Embassy in Nairobi in collaboration with leading business stakeholders, Egypt’s Chemical and Fertilizers Export Council (CFEC), Export Council for Building Materials, Refractory & Metallurgy Industries (ECBM), and under the auspices of Banque Misr (BM) as the financing agency.
EGYPT KENYA BUSINESS BRIDGE Forum, that will be held on the 5th of October2022, seeks to develop links between more than 34 leading Egyptian manufacturers with trade opportunities and to build valuable contacts with their Kenyan counterparts, as well as connecting Kenyan business communities eyeing the Egyptian market with the right trade partners. The Egyptian delegation will include representatives of the official Egyptian entities, the private and industrial Chemical & Building Materials sectors as well as high-level representatives (chairpersons, managers, and top executives) of 32 leading manufacturing companies and corporations.
President ElAbyad affirms the importance of the strong Egyptian / Kenyan bilateral ties and points out that the business forum will embark on a Trade Mission to Nairobi, Kenya from 4th to 8th October to explore trade opportunities and smart business partnership.
Trade missions are led through Egyptian Commercial Services (ECS) at Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and designed to help interested Kenyan Companies and traders to get in touch with the right counterparts in Egypt, which will save companies valuable time and resources, and lead to better matching with the required prospective distributors, sales representatives, or partners.
Such Trade Missions represent an opportunity to leverage new trade leads, partnering opportunities, and international sales. Additional benefits include B2B meetings with foreign industry executives and government officials, pre-screened to match specific business objectives whether for representation, direct sales, or joint ventures in the local markets.
In addition, networking events will be held with Kenyan guests from local industry multipliers including chambers of commerce, associations, and business councils influential in the business community, plus site visits to local facilities and pioneering markets.
The Commercial Counsellor at Egypt Embassy Mr. ELBakry praises the unique partnership Egypt and Kenya and enjoy through economic cooperation and strategic mutual trust, pointing the fact that Kenya is Egypt’s First Trade Partner in East Africa and Third Trade Partner in COMESA. He added that economically, our mutually beneficial cooperation has rapidly expanded in scale and scope and the potential for deepening our relations remains immense.
“The trade relation between our countries has never been more important, last year trade Volume of goods increased by 4.7% to reach almost USD 666 Million in 2021, with Egypt globally ranking second importer of Kenyan Tea recording USD 177.3 Million in 2021,” he said.
He added that such Trade missions organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry to the African Continent would provide Egyptian Business men with an access to economic and government decision-makers and achieve unparalleled networking opportunities with the local business community as well as appraising foreign market intelligence and troubleshooting in order to provide opportunities to create business strategic partnerships.
The Ambassador stresses that Egypt seeks to expand its cooperation and investment in Africa and create investment partnerships in all economic fields and sectors in implementation of the political leadership’s directives to open up to Africa, increase trade exchange, open new markets for Egyptian exports in Africa and vice versa, and activate the implementation of the COMESA agreement.
As an illustration, he highlights that financing the Business Forum by Egypt’s second-largest financial association Banque Misr (BM), that comes along with the Bank’s strategic plan to consolidate its foothold at the regional as well as international levels, especially East Africa Region and Kenya in particular, after CBK grants its license to operate a representative office in Kenya on the 2nd of August 2022, that would represent good opportunity to catalyze trade and investment relations between Egypt and Kenya.
