Hotels in Nairobi are expected to reap big from the estimated 6,000 delegates attending the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development meeting which begins from Sunday to Friday next week.
The 14th session of the UNCTAD will be a major boost to the recovering tourism sector, Tourism Cabinet secretary Najib Balala said yesterday. The sector has rebounded from a four-year slump to post a 12.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data on June 30.
Balala and his Foreign Affairs counterpart Amina Mohammed said they expect some of the delegates to visit other tourist attractions, especially the Masai Mara National Reserve where the annual historic wildebeest migration has started.
“After the conference, we all migrate to Masai Mara to enjoy the wildebeest migration. Take advantage of your visit to sample other Kenyan tourism products,” Balala said during the handing over of the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, the venue for the global meet, to the UNCTAD secretariat.
He reassured visitors of security and the country’s ability to host global forums under her meetings, incentives, conferencing and events facilities.
UNCTAD secretary general Mukhisa Kituyi said the forum will be used to address current global downturn in commodity markets.
It will also be used to review and put across measures that will strengthen commodity production in commodity-dependent developing countries, Kituyi said.
The move is expected to improve food security and export competitiveness in light of UNCTAD’s post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, to caution economies.
“It is the most serious effort by the international community within the context of the United Nations to address the vulnerability of commodity dependent countries, since the fourth session of UNCTAD conference in Nairobi which set up the global initiatives for commodities,” Kituyi said.
The conference will also focus on trade and Africa integration, trade and gender, role of e-commerce in fighting poverty and seek a way forward for the statements of the World Trade Organisation negotiating process.
Foreign Affairs CS Amina Mohammed said: “We hope discussions during the conference will support decisions to promote economic growth.”
Source: The Star

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