A meeting to explore investment opportunities in the African leather industry is being held in Nairobi from July 14-17 at the Windsor Golf and Country Club. Being held under the auspices of the European Commission, the meeting will bring together a number of African and European organisations.
The main goal of the INVEST-TECH meeting is to promote North-South and South-South investment, technology flows and inter-enterprise co-operation agreements in the selected sector. The Forum will also serve as a platform for information and experience exchanges as well as promoting trade opportunities in the leather sector.
Other objectives of the meeting are: To encourage the more developed, European leather Industry to increase Investments and Technology flows into the less developed Leather sector in the ACP countries. To update and enhance the productivity of leather and leather products factories in the ACP countries. The ACP countries will have an improved export market access and understanding and also access to improved efficient technology. EU countries will also be able to get access to higher quality raw material supplies. To facilitate formation of long-term inter-enterprise strategic alliances as well as long-term commercial agreements.
The targeted groups are tanners, footwear and leathergoods manufacturers, investment promotion agencies and other interested investors.
The organisations involved are the Eastern and Southern Africa leather industries Association (ESALIA) in association with their European and ACP partners namely Associazione nazionale costruttori macchine dell’area pelle [ASSOMAC-Italy], VDMA-Germany (Garment and Leather Technology association), Asociacion Espanola de Empresas de componentes para el Calzado (AEC-Spain), Ethiopian Tanners Association (ETA-Ethiopia) and Uganda Leather and Allied Industries Association (ULAIA-Uganda). They are organizing the meeting with support of PRO€INVEST. PRO€INVEST is a programme of the ACP Group and the European Commission for the promotion of investment and is managed by the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE) under the supervision of the European Commission.
A reasonable package of US$85 bed and breakfast has been negotiated and agreed upon with the organizers. For details on the hotel, please visit their web site [http://www.windsorgolfresort.com]