Empowering Dutch Businesses: Insights from the 'Doing Business With Government' Roundtable

News item | 15-12-2023 | 09:10

On the 5th October, the Embassy of the Netherlands in Kenya supported the Netherlands Business Hub(NLBH) Kenya in hosting a seminar on 'Doing business with government.'

The objective of the session was to inform Dutch companies on what it entails to do business with government, some of the opportunities for business by government as well as hear practical experiences from international companies that have dealt with government (as a supplier of goods and services).  The seminar included different speakers who spoke about the opportunities, processes and procedures of doing business with Kenyan Government entities. The Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) which has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NLBH on investment promotion also supported the event through its role as the government representative.

Embassy's Direct Engagement with Kenyan Government on Trade and Investment Matters

The Embassy highlighted its role in supporting trade and investments between the Netherlands and Kenya which is currently on a positive trend. Over the year, the embassy has supported seminars, receptions, trade mission and engaged directly with Government of Kenya on matters relating to trade and investment between the two countries.

This is aside from business climate interventions support to Government of Kenya through programmes to address bottlenecks on various fronts including commercial dispute resolutions, business registration services, logistics (customs, trade across borders, phytosanitary processes), regulatory information portal and warehouse receipt system.

Keninvest enlightened participants on the different phases of public procurement and sources of public procurement information. On the other hand, Special Economic Zones Authority shared information on the business opportunities and tax incentives in the Special Economic Zones and urged Dutch companies to take advantage.

Next Steps: Leveraging Opportunities Discussed for Continued Success

The last part of the seminar included a lively panel discussion with business owners Marcel Schreurs and Verspecht Kris who shared their practical experiences on doing business with the government.

A number of challenges were raised and exchanges on how to not only resolve but also mitigate some of them. KenInvest , in particular, advised companies, through the various business advocacy platforms, to regularly present the challenges as there is now an opportunity to have them addressed , even escalated to higher levels such as the recently established National Investments Council chaired by the President.

Looking forward to having similar engagements in the future!

Contact  Trade & Investment Team in Kenya:

E-mail:  nai-ea@minbuza.nl