On 16^th March 2023, KEPSA held a meeting with a delegation from Invest Hong Kong and Hong Kong Trade Development Council at KEPSA offices to discuss how Kenya and Hong Kong can re-energize their commitment to growing trade and investments. The meeting further discussed how Invest Hong Kong can provide Kenyan businesses with market landscape understanding, opportunities and business intelligence on market demands as well as how to collaborate in supporting business linkages.

The KEPSA team was led by the Deputy CEO Mr Victor Ogalo and the Head of Project and SME Development Mr Harrison Ngatia. Invest Hong Kong was represented by Mr Stephen Phillis and Mr Holger Vogt while Hong Kong Trade Development Council was led by Mr Kassim Were Ali.  

During the meeting, Mr Ogalo called for mutually beneficial business relationships that would increase Kenya's visibility in the Hong Kong market and business support for Hong Kong businesses in Kenya. He emphasized the benefits of the intended partnership including export-oriented growth, balanced trade partnerships, market intelligence by both countries, and people-to-people partnerships. He finished by identifying tourism, coffee processing, and tea processing as low-hanging fruits.

Mr Ngatia discussed the areas of support and opportunities available in the country's SME space, such as increasing market access, improving access to finance, building capacity to prepare Kenyan SMEs for the global market, promoting innovation, and improving the policy environment for SMEs.

The meeting agreed to develop, sign and implement a memorandum of understanding (MoU) as a way to strengthen the bilateral ties.