Kenya Diaspora Conference Australia - September 8-9, 2012

The Kenya High Commission in Canberra is pleased to announce that the 2012 Kenya Diaspora Conference in Australia will run on Saturday 8^th, September and Sunday 9^th September 2012 at the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle, Perth, Western Australia.
 

The theme for the conference is – Diaspora Partic­i­pation in the New Kenya: Be Part of Building Your Future.

The Conference will explore key growth industries, feature inter­esting keynote speakers and presen­ta­tions from leading sectors of the economy and provide an oppor­tunity for networking. .The social and economic sectors iden­tified for  delib­er­ation include; Tourism, Mining, Education, Banking, Diaspora Phil­an­thropy, Vision 2030, The new Consti­tution and many more.

Kenya is the economic bastion of the East African economic block. It is the hub of inter­na­tional connec­tions in the Aviation industry and over the last decade it’s investment potential has quadrupled. Kenya’s call for investors is further strengthened by the huge market of over 100 million people in the East Africa Community.

Rationale for the Conference

The number of Kenyans living abroad is esti­mated at three (3) Million and is contin­u­ously on the rise.  The inter­na­tional migration and devel­opment debate has increas­ingly empha­sized the impact that emigrants continue to have on coun­tries of origin.  Indeed the Kenyan Diaspora makes signif­icant contri­bution to national economic devel­opment prin­ci­pally in terms of remit­tance of funds and transfer of tech­nology. The amount of inward-remittances was esti­mated at Kshs. 151.2 Billion ($1.8 Billion) in 2010 (according to the World Bank, Migra­tions and Remit­tance Fact book 2010), accounting for 5.4 % of the Gross Domestic Product.

It is also worth noting that the role of Diaspora in the devel­opment of host coun­tries is also increas­ingly getting recog­nition, with coun­tries such as Australia imple­menting targeted immi­gration policies that are aimed at harnessing specific skills from abroad.

Kenyans in Australia

According to Official statistics by the Government of Australia (based on 2006 Census), 9930 were regis­tered as Kenyan-born.  Among these, 12.6 per cent arrived between 1996 and 2000 and 38.9 per cent arrived during 2001 and 2006.  Whereas the Mission main­tains a database on Kenyans in Australia, there is no conclusive infor­mation on the exact numbers and the nature of the Kenyan nationals in Australia.  Never­theless, and even though the data from the 2011 Census is yet to be released, it is expected that the number of Kenyans in Australia will be close to 15,000.  This is more so since the impor­tance of Australia as a desti­nation of choice among Kenyans seeking to study, live and work abroad has continued to grow.

While the Mission has endeavored to encourage effective inter­action through the existing associations/forums/groups of Kenyans that are based at state/territory levels, it has however recog­nized the need for a mech­anism through which the Government could bring them on board if the campaign to build and promote the Kenyan brand is to succeed.  To achieve this it is imper­ative that a struc­tured engagement process be estab­lished in order to tap this potential.  The proposed Diaspora Conference is therefore envisaged as a step towards setting in motion a mech­anism to mobilize Kenyans living in Australia for National Devel­opment of Kenya.
Online Regis­tration

Visit www.kenyadiasporaconference.com.au to register. Limited Tickets Available.