UNDP's executive director for Technonet Africa John Mwaniki yesterday said all African countries had been invited for the meeting to run alongside the UN small and medium-size financing symposium.
"We define small and medium enterprises as those businesses whose initial investment is between $100,000 (Sh7 million) and $15 million (Sh214 million) ," Mr Mwaniki said.
African Development Bank and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) will be present to support memorandums of understanding signed between the businesses.
Mr Mwaniki said the meeting would offer an opportunity for enhanced intra-African and intra-Asian business partnerships and strengthened cooperation in the "One-Village One-Product" movement.
"One-Village One-Product" is a movement which aims at promoting rural development by focusing on the unique resources and products of each area.
At least 200 firms from Africa are expected to sign business deals with 100 Asian companies from Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Pakistan, the Philippines, Vietnam, India and South Korea.
The key objective of the meeting is to attract investments in Africa and to increase Afro-Asia trade. Three such meetings have been held since 1999 when the talks were held in Malaysia. In 2001, they were held in South Africa and in Senegal in 2004.
The earlier talks generated a high level of business interest, demonstrating that Africa was a viable business destination.
Source: The Nation
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