LAHORE: Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will inaugurate the two-day Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference being organised in Nairobi on Jan 30-31 by the Commerce Ministry as part of its Look Africa Initiative aimed at enhancing trade with the world’s second most populous continent.

As part of this initiative, the ministry has relocated six commercial sections from Europe to Africa in 2019, taking the total number to 10 for covering as many top continental economies, Commerce Secretary Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera told Dawn on Friday.

Pakistan’s trade with Africa remained stagnant at $3 billion a year between 2013 and 2017, before increasing to $4.6bn in 2019 primarily because of Pakistan’s low level diplomatic engagement with African nations.

The Nairobi trade conference is a first of its kind initiative and the ministry is expecting over 200 delegates, both top officials and businessmen, from 20 African states including Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Burundi, Morocco, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and Sudan.

Pakistan will be represented at the conference by Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureishi along with executives of 100 companies and trade officials. The Kenyan government is providing full support for the event.

“In addition to exploring the future trade potential, especially for our exports in such sectors as textiles and apparel, agriculture, light engineering, surgical instruments, IT, banking and transport services, the conference will discuss Pakistan-Africa relations,” Sukhera said.

“The conference will explore ways and means to enhance trade, develop banking and transportation channels, improve connectivity, and remove tariff and non-tariff barriers.”

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2020