{"id":124588,"date":"2025-11-12T11:07:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T11:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/11\/12\/nairobi-hosts-itcs-first-regional-office-outside-geneva\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T11:07:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T11:07:39","slug":"nairobi-hosts-itcs-first-regional-office-outside-geneva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/nairobi-hosts-itcs-first-regional-office-outside-geneva\/","title":{"rendered":"Nairobi Hosts ITC\u2019s First Regional Office Outside Geneva"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 12 <\/strong>\u2013 The International Trade Centre (ITC) has opened its first-ever regional office outside Geneva, located at the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON).<\/p>\n<p>President William Ruto officiated the launch during the opening day of the East African Community (EAC) Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) Trade Fair, describing the move as a major milestone for East Africa\u2019s economic growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe celebrate the establishment of this regional hub of ITC. This milestone is not for Kenya alone \u2013 it belongs to East Africa. It will bring global markets within our reach and to our producers,\u201d President Ruto said.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, ITC Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton, together with UNON Director-General Zainab Bangura and UN Resident Coordinator Stephen Jackson, led a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new office.<\/p>\n<p>Coke-Hamilton hailed the development as \u201ca major milestone\u201d in ITC\u2019s mission to deepen relationships with countries and regions it serves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen deciding where to launch our first corporate office outside headquarters, it quickly became clear that Kenya \u2014 where we already have an extensive footprint and deep relationships \u2014 was the right choice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The opening builds on momentum from the EAC SME Ministerial Roundtable, co-organised by ITC and Kenya\u2019s Ministry of Cooperatives and MSME Development, following the Global SME Ministerial Meeting in Johannesburg in July.<\/p>\n<p>The roundtable brought together government representatives, private-sector players, and multilateral institutions from over 15 countries to strengthen cooperation in SME development.<\/p>\n<p>A joint communiqu\u00e9 \u2014 signed by ITC, Kenya\u2019s Ministry of Cooperatives and MSME Development, and the EAC Secretariat \u2014 was presented to President Ruto by Cabinet Secretary Wycliffe Oparanya, affirming a regional commitment to advancing the competitiveness of small enterprises in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).<\/p>\n<p>The communiqu\u00e9 will be tabled at the upcoming EAC Heads of State Summit later this month for inclusion in the chair\u2019s statement, marking a step toward elevating SME development to higher political significance across the region.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 12 \u2013 The International Trade Centre (ITC) has opened its first-ever regional office outside Geneva, located at the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON). President William Ruto officiated the launch during the opening day of the East African Community (EAC) Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) Trade Fair, describing the move as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}