By Coast Times Team
The recent Jordanian-Kenyan Economic Forum may be the gateway to more opportunities in terms of investment in Kenya after WATRA, an Africans leading trade and investment promotion advisory agency, led a Kenyan delegation of 18 business persons to Amman- Jordan for a trade and business development mission early December 2022.
At the centre of WATRA AFRICA is William Ndeti, a businessman from Mkongani ward in Kwale who serves as the chairman of economic diplomacy and Masinde Mwangale the CEO, WATRA AFRICA.
The meetings that were held on the sidelines of a Kenyan trade delegation’s visit to the Kingdom, aimed to discuss means of advancing economic cooperation.
The Jordanian Businessmen Association (JBA), in cooperation with the Jordanian embassy in Nairobi and WATRA AFRICA, organized the Jordanian-Kenyan Economic Forum.
The forum aimed to discuss means of advancing economic cooperation, notably to establish joint investments and increase the volume of trade exchange between the two countries.
The two sides also discussed increased networking opportunities for businesspeople from both countries in sectors of common interest.
Jordanian-Kenyan trade exchange during the first nine months of 2022 totalled around $6.6 million.
The forum covers several sectors, including agriculture and food industries; telecommunications and information technology; healthcare, e-health, and pharmaceutical industries; and renewable energy, clean technology, and the environment.
“The overall goal of the Business Mission to Jordan was to provide participants with a better understanding of Jordanian’s business and investment environment through meetings with local companies, Government, and Kenyan companies who have already invested in Jordan,” said William Ndeti.
During the meeting the chairman Jordanian Businessmen Association Mr. Hamdi Tabbaa gave the overview of the Jordanian economy and specific sectors while WATRA AFRICA on behalf of Kenya shared the outlook of the Kenyan business landscape and opportunities in the country presented by CEO Masinde.
The Jordanian Ambassador to Kenya, HE Mr. Firas Al Khoury noted: “Trade between Kenya and Jordan was healthy. However, more efforts are required to promote trade and business cooperation between the two countries. This mission demonstrates that Kenyan companies were keen to develop contacts with Jordanian firms, especially in key sectors where new opportunities are being created, such as IT, energy, Electrical and mechanical industries (energy, electric cables, electric transformers, electric meters, circuit breakers, metal construction, hardware, fittings …). Agribusiness, and medical health among others. I hope to see some positive results from the contacts we are arranging.”
It was noted too that most sectors offer opportunities, including water, energy (especially renewable energies), transport, construction, tourism, medical sector, telecommunications, environment and Agro-food products.
Ndeti said that the relationship between the two countries can be deepened by leveraging on joint ventures, business networks and signing of the trade agreement framework.
WATRA -AFRICA had an opportunity to sign an MOU with the Jordanian Businessmen Association which were signed by Chairman Mr. Hamdi Tabbaa on behalf the Jordanian Businessmen Association and Mr. William Ndeti on behalf of WATRA Africa to establish a Joint Business Council-JBC and working program on bilateral relationship and cooperation.
The Joint Business Councils represent a dynamic framework to establish a strategic partnership between the business communities from both countries with the objective to foster bilateral development and cooperation in trade, investment, technology transfer, information and services.
“The Joint Business Council will take up the role of promoting exports, exchange of goods and services through exhibitions, act as an interface with leading authorities in both countries to eliminate trade barriers, settling any commercial disputes that may arise amongst traders in both countries and provide access to knowledge programs, ‘reads a report seen by Coast Times.
Additional report from Hala News and The Jordan Times
