Kenya's Soft Power Rising new heights

[Kafrican]

NAIROBI, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's ministry of foreign affairs will next week convene a forum on fast-tracking the process of joining World Trade Organization(WTO) by countries in the greater Horn of Africa region.

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Amina Mohamed, said the Aug. 28-30 regional conference will build on previous initiatives aimed at facilitating Horn of Africa countries to become part of the multilateral trading regime.

"The regional dialogue meeting has been convened for four African countries from the greater horn of Africa region that are in the process of acceding to WTO," said Mohamed.

The target countries include Union of Comoros, Federal Republic of Ethiopia, Federal Republic of Somalia and Republic of the Sudan.

South Sudan which has expressed interest to join WTO will also participate, she added.

The foreign minister revealed that China, Liberia, Oman, Yemen and Seychelles have also been invited to attend the regional forum.

"Their participation is significant as they are expected to share their accession experiences," said Mohamed, adding that representatives of multilateral institutions and regional trade blocs will also be in attendance.

Senior policymakers, diplomats and experts from the Horn of Africa region will attend the Nairobi forum that aims to revitalize the momentum towards securing membership to WTO.

Mohamed said delegates will agree on a raft of resolutions aimed at positioning Horn of Africa states to become key players in global trade.

"The regional dialogue conference will offer a platform to exchange experiences and lessons learned from accession processes in the region. Delegates will reflect on ways in which the WTO membership can foster regional integration and cooperation," Mohamed told reporters.

She added the forum will inspire other African countries to lend support towards establishment of a fair multilateral trading regime.

Kenya hosted the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC10) in December 2015 when Liberia and Afghanistan formally joined WTO.

Mohamed said the Nairobi meeting laid a foundation for a just and inclusive global trading system that has inspired confidence among African states.

"Currently, 8 out of 21 countries on the queue for WTO membership are from Africa and several lie within the greater horn of Africa," said Mohamed.

She disclosed that Kenya will provide technical expertise to neighboring countries to hasten their accession to WTO. Enditem

 

[Kafrican]

Meanwhile, After Kenya successfully hosted World U18 championship and announced its intention of bidding to host 2023 IAAF World championship (The biggest athletics sports event of its Kind after the Olympics)... Now a number of Major African countries all want to join in the action...

Aug 15, 2017
On the back of another successful IAAF World Championships for their athletes, the Kenyan government are talking up a bid to host the event in 2023.
Kenya bids for World Championships


Yesterday, African Athletics body has announced that Six African have decided to all want to bid to host the event, African countries will now have to decide who among the six will have a majority of blessings from the continent inorder to have only one strong bidder from the continent giving the bidder a stronger chance.


23 August 2017

The head of African athletics says the continent will bid to host the 2025 World Championships.

Africa has never staged the biennial event, which started in 1983, despite being home to many world champions.

Hamad Kalkaba Malboum says he believes a bid is set to come from one of six African nations.

"We are talking with Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco - those countries have the facilities," said the Cameroonian.
"I have very positive sounds from some of them," added the president of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA).

Morocco is the only African country to have staged a leg of the Diamond League, the annual athletics series which runs from May to September around the world.

The Moroccan city Casablanca was also the last in Africa to try to stage the World Championships, having bid unsuccessfully for the 2011 event.

Kalkaba pointed to recent successes with March's World Cross Country Championships in Uganda and July's World U18 Championships in Kenya as reasons to be hopeful.

"People said that Africa could not host the World Cup in football, but we did it very successfully," he added in reference to South Africa's staging of the 2010 finals.

Kalkaba, who took charge of the CAA in 2003, said the president of athletics' governing body - the IAAF - backs the idea.

"President Coe is supporting the fact that Africa could host the World Championships," said the 66-year-old, an IAAF vice-president himself.

Image copyrightAFP
Image captionKenya finished second on the medals table at London 2017, having topped the table in 2015
With the 2019 and 2021 events having been awarded to Qatar and the United States respectively, the next available championship to bid for is 2023.

Yet Kalkaba, who has been in talks with political leaders including Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, believes this is too early for the continent.

He said Africa has never previously staged the biennial competition because athletics was less popular than football and also "because we are facing many other social problems - health, education, building roads or railways - political leaders are sometimes afraid of spending a lot of money on hosting an event.

"But I think many now realise that [staging the championships] could put the nation on the world map in terms of publicity and promote tourism so there is a benefit from hosting the event. This was not the case in the past."

A decision on who will stage the 2025 finals is set to be taken in 2020.
Africa to bid for 2025 World Athletics Championships - BBC News

 

[Jay456watt]

Meanwhile, After Kenya successfully hosted World U18 championship and announced its intention of bidding to host 2023 IAAF World championship (The biggest athletics sports event of its Kind after the Olympics)... Now a number of Major African countries all want to join in the action...

Aug 15, 2017
On the back of another successful IAAF World Championships for their athletes, the Kenyan government are talking up a bid to host the event in 2023.
Kenya bids for World Championships


Yesterday, African Athletics body has announced that Six African have decided to all want to bid to host the event, African countries will now have to decide who among the six will have a majority of blessings from the continent inorder to have only one strong bidder from the continent giving the bidder a stronger chance.


23 August 2017

The head of African athletics says the continent will bid to host the 2025 World Championships.

Africa has never staged the biennial event, which started in 1983, despite being home to many world champions.

Hamad Kalkaba Malboum says he believes a bid is set to come from one of six African nations.

"We are talking with Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco - those countries have the facilities," said the Cameroonian.
"I have very positive sounds from some of them," added the president of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA).

Morocco is the only African country to have staged a leg of the Diamond League, the annual athletics series which runs from May to September around the world.

The Moroccan city Casablanca was also the last in Africa to try to stage the World Championships, having bid unsuccessfully for the 2011 event.

Kalkaba pointed to recent successes with March's World Cross Country Championships in Uganda and July's World U18 Championships in Kenya as reasons to be hopeful.

"People said that Africa could not host the World Cup in football, but we did it very successfully," he added in reference to South Africa's staging of the 2010 finals.

Kalkaba, who took charge of the CAA in 2003, said the president of athletics' governing body - the IAAF - backs the idea.

"President Coe is supporting the fact that Africa could host the World Championships," said the 66-year-old, an IAAF vice-president himself.

Image copyrightAFP
Image captionKenya finished second on the medals table at London 2017, having topped the table in 2015
With the 2019 and 2021 events having been awarded to Qatar and the United States respectively, the next available championship to bid for is 2023.

Yet Kalkaba, who has been in talks with political leaders including Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, believes this is too early for the continent.

He said Africa has never previously staged the biennial competition because athletics was less popular than football and also "because we are facing many other social problems - health, education, building roads or railways - political leaders are sometimes afraid of spending a lot of money on hosting an event.

"But I think many now realise that [staging the championships] could put the nation on the world map in terms of publicity and promote tourism so there is a benefit from hosting the event. This was not the case in the past."

A decision on who will stage the 2025 finals is set to be taken in 2020.
Africa to bid for 2025 World Athletics Championships - BBC News

hehe good stufff bro but how can we host World Champs with our stadiums?