Next week's visit by an American trade delegation led by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is expected to boost Kenya's image - tarnished by last year's post-election violence - as an investment destination.
The US embassy in Nairobi announced that Mrs Clinton, Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilisack and Trade Representative Ron Kirk will attend the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act Forum to be held in Nairobi from August 4-8.
"It will be a boon to the country's image if the government utilises the opportunity to state concrete steps it has taken to help improve the country's image from last year's problems," said Eugene Young, the embassy's economic counsellor.
The theme of the Agoa forum is "Realising the full potential of Agoa through expansion of trade and investment."
The forum comes at a time when Kenya's leadership has been criticised by the Obama administration for corruption and bad governance.
The government will spend more than $1.25 million on the forum in what analysts see as an effort to clean up its image in order to attract international investors.
In addition, the Agoa forum is expected to bring to light the current position of Kenyan exports to the United States, especially at this time when the US government is concerned about the health of its citizens.
Minister for Trade Amos Kimunya was upbeat saying, "It is a challenge to East African exporters to rebrand their goods so as to improve their quality. Once they attain the standard quality dictated by the market, they will be able to increase the volume of their exports as well as diversify the range of their exports."
"The hosting of the forum in Kenya offers a great opportunity for American importers and investors to see and assess first hand East Africa's needs and challenges in regard to Agoa. In addition, the forum will build on the opportunities and deliberate on how to overcome the existing challenges," he said.
Mr Kimunya said the government is in the process of setting up an export development fund to finance exporters especially in small and medium enterprises.
Statistics from the Trade Minis-try show that Kenya exported goods worth more than $250 million to the United States under the Agoa arrangement last year, compared with $237.5 million in 2007. The best figures Kenya ever achieved under Agoa was in 2006 when it exported goods worth $262.5 million.
In contrast, US exports to Kenya almost doubled from $309.13 million in 2006, to $557.375 million in 2007.
Kenya imports from the US aircraft parts, machinery and electronic equipment, as well as pharmaceuticals., while the US imports Kenyan tea, coffee, textile goods, processed nuts and pyrethrum.
The conference is being held in conjunction with supporting partners, among them the US government - which initiated the Agoa arrangement under the Bush administration to boost exports of selected products from 39 sub-Saharan Africa countries- the American Chamber of Commerce (Kenyan chapter), Kenya's Ministry of Trade, the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, the Export Promotions Council and the Export Processing Zones Authority.
Participants will be drawn from 38 countries as well as investors from the US.
The sectors to be represented at the conference include, transport, oil seeds and gas, aircraft and parts, construction machinery among others.
Agoa was enacted in 2000 by the US government to offer duty-free market access by sub-Saharan African countries to the US market.
Beneficiary countries commit themselves to establish a market-based economy, the rule of law and policies to reduce poverty.
Mr Kimunya said the forum will review its impact and explore new ways of exploiting other opportunities created by the Act.
From the East African.