World TPO Awards 2008

Best TPO from a Developing Country

Kenya’s trade promotion organization, Export Promotion Council (EPC) won the Award for the Best TPO from a Developing Country.

Kenya Vision 2030 is the government’s development blueprint for 2008-2030 to transform Kenya into a “middle-income country providing a high quality life to all citizens by the year 2030”. In line with this policy, the EPC is determined to overcome the bottlenecks that block exporters from achieving higher levels of performance.

The EPC decided to mainstream SMEs into the export process and increase their competitiveness through an integrated programme targeting product development, building capacity and taking advantage of e-commerce opportunities. This approach is leading to innovative service and delivery methods.

Revealing and addressing challenges

The Council used the Export Readiness Assessment (ERA) tool – designed to determine a company’s capacity to develop a proactive, long-term export business – to assess 100 SMEs from six provinces, 25 of which were selected and assisted to develop new commercial craft products.

The ERA assessment revealed common challenges: product design and development techniques, market information and access, access to skills and modern technology, knowledge of business management and marketing. In response, the Council trained more than 1,700 exporters in seven modules in the export value chain. The new commercial craft products were showcased in an exhibition held in Nairobi in November 2007 and participated in the Tendence Frankfurt Fair in July 2008. SMEs were introduced to e-commerce and a web portal was developed. EPC reports that several companies have started receiving orders from the website.