A high powered conference bringing together top government officials, visitors and potential investors to meet with Kenyans in diaspora kicks off on the sidelines of the Olympic events.
President Kibaki is expected to lead high level Kenyan Government delegation that will present the new and eagerly awaited Diaspora Policy at the upcoming conference which will paint a contemporary picture of the investment climate in Kenya and highlight the key opportunities for Diaspora engagement and investment.
Kibaki is accompanied by several Cabinet ministers and top bureaucrats of his government and is expected to officiate at the conference after gracing the official opening ceremony of Olympic games Friday.
Below are the excerpts sent to media from the comnfrence which is scheduled for Church House Confrence Centre, Westminister in London:
With the aid of Government representatives, key multilateral agencies, private sector companies and members of the Diaspora already investing into Kenya, the aim of the event will be to inform the audience on the country’s new constitution and the prime sectors ready for investment for the Diaspora.
Critically, it will go on to give practical information on how to invest, and how Kenya hopes to use the knowledge and skills of its impressive Diaspora to further its economic and social development. The programme is designed to be fully interactive with ample opportunity for networking and Q&A. The Conference is a free to attend event.
The Government wants to build sustainable partnerships between Kenya and its Diaspora through sustainable dialogue which will allow easy integration of the Diaspora into all socio-economic activities of the nation. Building sustainable partnerships require a very well thought out framework of engagement, and that’s the reason the Government is establishing a Diaspora policy –to guide all the relevant stake holders on how to conduct the affairs of the Diaspora in a more structured way.
The presence of the high powered delegation is a clear manifestation of the Governments’ seriousness in nurturing the Diaspora to participate effectively in the national development agenda. Diaspora is an idea whose time has come and cannot be ignored but has to be nurtured to maturity. About 600 Kenyans from across Europe are expected to attend.
The UK – Diaspora have made some major investment contributions to Kenya, especially in Real Estates; they have also recently come up with a UK SACCO Society which was launched 07th July ,2012 – just to mention a few of the development initiatives.We are very proud of your achievements both in the UK and back home.
Kenyans constitute one of the largest Diaspora Community from the African Continent in United Kingdom. The government is looking for measures to facilitate the process of cutting the cost of remittances and also to ensure the leveraging of the same by designing customized investment opportunities for you.
The Kenya Diaspora Conference is part of a series of events which will be centrally coordinated around ‘Kenya House’. In order to take advantage of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Kenya is setting up ‘Kenya House’, at East Thames Building in West Ham Lane, Stratford, close to the Olympic site, to showcase the country’s unique culture, sports, art and other developments. The house will provide visitors and potential investors, with experience that Kenya has built around the “theme” of “Kenya’s past, present and future” – “From a Great Past to a Greater Future”.
