Kenya to host UN trade meet next July
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed speaks at KICC during a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting, on August 31, 2015. Ms Mohamed announced on November 4, 2015 that Trade and Development Board had accepted Kenya’s offer to host the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) conference in July next year. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Foreign Affairs and International Trade Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, announced friday that Trade and Development Board had accepted Kenya’s offer to host the UNCTAD XIV event scheduled July 18-22, 2016.
Kenya will host the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meeting in July next year.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, announced Friday that Trade and Development Board had accepted Kenya’s offer to host the UNCTAD XIV event scheduled July 18-22, 2016.
The meeting will boost the image of the country, which in the recent past was slapped with travel bans following terror attacks, affecting the tourism industry.
“It will be a distinct privilege for me and all Kenyan people to welcome the nations of the world to Nairobi next July to take up the important challenge of putting trade and development policies to work in the service of sustainable development,” she said.
She added, “Coming at a historical moment – just after the international community has agreed to a holistic and comprehensive set of sustainable development goals, which we must achieve by 2030, the conference has the solemn duty of translating the heightened ambitions of the new development agenda into concrete actions that benefit all countries.”
Former Cabinet Minister Mukhisa Kutuyi, who currently serves as the secretary-general of UNCTAD, also welcomed the move.
Mr Stephen Karau, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations office in Geneva, said the conference will be “an opportunity to forge a strong global partnership to accelerate development agenda”. The meeting was originally set to be held in Lima, Peru in March 2016, but in early September, Peru informed UNCTAD that it could no longer host the conference due to El Niño.
