More Kenyans interested in doing business with Chinese

Final visitor numbers released today by the organisers of China Trade Week, hosted earlier this month by MIE Events in Nairobi, have shown that more Kenyans are keen on trading with China.

The three day event held between July 1^st and 3^rd recorded 16500 visitors and according to the organizers, it was “an overwhelming success.”

“When you launch an event into a new country you are never quite sure whether your visitor marketing campaign will deliver the goods! We had targeted to attract around 3000 visitors to our first exhibition and would have been happy with this. However, we realized a week before the show that the exhibition and our marketing had resonated with the Kenyan and East African business and SME community as we already had nearly 3000 pre-registered visitors through our China Trade Week website before we even opened the doors of the show,” said Gary Robinson, International Events Director of Dubai based, MIE Events.

Resounding success

“Our visitor numbers increased daily with our best attended day being the last day of the show where we had over 7100 visitors! In total we had 16,500 visitors over the 3 day show. It is certainly fair to say that our exhibitors had a great show and we have already re-booked over 50% of our exhibitors who will be returning for China Trade Week 2016.  Many of our exhibitors have already decided to set up offices in Kenya with others preparing to make investments,” said Robinson.

Mr. Robinson said following the runaway success of the expo, the organizers had increased the exhibition space for 2016 as well as increasing the number of exhibition days to two consecutive weeks.

Kenyan SME's attend the China Trade Week which took place on July 1st-3rd at the KICC, Nairobi

“In the first week we will focus on the sectors of Construction Materials, Construction equipment and vehicles, lighting and Automotive Parts and then change all the exhibitors for the second week and focus on sectors such as Consumer Electronics, Home Electrical Goods, Textiles & Clothing, Luggage, Furniture etc.  I believe we will have to use large tents next year to accommodate all our exhibitors,” he said.

China-Kenya Investment Forum

MIE Events Managing Director Mr. David Wang commended the institutional support the organisers received from Kenyan Investment Authority (KenInvest), Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) as well as the Kenyan Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), and the media getting the message out to the business community.

“Many visitors appreciated our China Sourcing Workshops had been for them and we fully intend to continue with these in next year’s show but on a much larger scale. In addition it is very likely that we will host a high level China-Kenya Investment Forum which will bring together both Chinese and Kenyan investors, entrepreneurs and project owners in a dynamic business matchmaking environment,” Mr. Wang said.