ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government will organise a two-day trade conference in Kenya in a major trade outreach to Africa.

The first Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference, hosted jointly by the ministries of commerce and foreign affairs would be held in Nairobi on Jan 30-31, the Foreign Office announced on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and the adviser for commerce, textiles, industry, production and investments, Abdul Razzak Dawood, will speak at the inaugural session of the conference.

Mr Qureshi departed for Kenya on Tuesday. His visit will include meetings with Kenyan officials, besides participation in the conference.

The Foreign Office said the minister would meet Kenyan cabinet secretaries for foreign affairs and international trade, African community, Northern Corridor Development, transport and ports, and trade, industry and cooperatives.

A large Pakistani business contingent would also participate in the conference and meet their African counterparts.

“Africa’s increasing integration and growth momentum together with Pakistan’s potential as a connectivity hub have opened multiple avenues for win-win collaboration,” the FO said.

“The conference will provide a platform for G2G and B2B interaction. It will be an important opportunity for Pakistani and African businesses to interface and identify areas for enhanced engagement, and develop proposals for customised economic collaboration,” it added.

Prime Minister Imran Khan at a conference of Pakistani envoys in Africa in November had said that promotion of relations with African countries would be the new focus of foreign policy operations.

He had said that special emphasis would be placed on developing trade ties.

Mr Khan believes that there is a tremendous opportunity for Pakistani goods and services in view of the growing middle-class consumer market in Africa.

Africa is the second largest continent of the world with 20 per cent of the world’s land mass and 54 sovereign states, and boasting 1.2 billion people and the largest youth population on the globe.

Most of the African countries are witnessing stable growth. The region has a collective GDP of over $2.3 trillion and an import market of around $500bn.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2020