Manufacturing East Africa is borne from the success of the Manufacturing Indaba conference & exhibition which is hosted in South Africa, annually. There has been a call from the South African manufacturers to expand and sell their products and services into Africa and to explore business partnerships and synergies with a focus towards Regional Integration.
Manufacturing accounts for about 70% of global trade and about 80% of global business R&D (McKinsey Global Institute 2012).
Manufacturing thus remains a driver of economic prosperity in advanced economies. The global environment in which the Eastern African manufacturing sector develops going forward will be greatly different compared to that in which manufacturing sectors developed elsewhere in the past.
This has significant implications for Eastern African policy. The objective of this event to be hosted in Nairobi, Kenya, is to assess major opportunities and constraints for the development of the Eastern Africa’s manufacturing sector, to look at suitable examples from other regions, and draw lessons to enhance the sector’s contribution to the region’s economic transformation. To this end, seven countries, covering Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania and Uganda, will be featured at the event.
