The counselor was echoed by Yu Xiaoming, the vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of Shandong Provincial People's Congress. Yu said the delegation from East China's Shandong came to Kenya for friendship, cooperation and common development.

He was proud to learn that China has become Kenya’s largest trading partner, investor and contractor, among which companies from Shandong province played an important role.

According to the vice-chairman, Shandong is the biggest industrial producer and one of the top manufacturing provinces in China. Its GDP reached 7.27 trillion yuan ($1.08 trillion) in 2017, ranking it the third richest province nationwide after South China's Guangdong and East China's Jiangsu provinces. With a population of more than 100 million, Shandong represents a big market with a strong consumption capacity.

Due to strong economic complementarities between Shandong and Kenya’s economy structures, there is enough space and potential to cooperate in the future. To that end, the Department of Commerce of Shandong province and the Kenya Investment Authority co-hosted Kenya-Shandong Business Day on Thursday, which is the first day of the 2018 Kenya International Industrial Expo. The Kenya Chinese Chamber of Commerce (Shandong) was officially unveiled on the same day.

Newly elected Chairman Zhan Dong explained the original intention and purpose of forming the chamber. "We hope the chamber can serve as a platform between Shandong entrepreneurs and the Kenya partners and can promote the business and trade exchanges between the two sides,”Zhan said.

Zhan runs a large-scale supermarket in the China Center of Nairobi, focusing on exporting Chinese commodities to Kenya, and vice versa. Last month, he led more than a dozen Kenyan importers and exporters attending the 9th China (Linyi) International Trade and Logistics Fair, which was held Sept 22 to 25 in Linyi, Shandong’s most populous and largest city. To promote trade balance, Linyi opened a trade city for imported goods from all over the world, including Africa commodities during the trade and logistic fair.

In a meeting with Guo and Yu, Patricia Aruwa, deputy director of Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives of Kenya, expressed willingness to intensify economic and trade relations with Chinese partners. She introduced the status quo of Kenya’s economy, the future development strategy and policy tendency, as well as cooperation areas and consensus, that need to be reached by the two sides.

As a representative of the Kenya Investment Authority, Pius Rotich, general manager of the Investment Promotion Department, explained the detailed preferential measures that Kenya introduced to attractive foreign investors.

Both Aruwa and Rotich promised that the industrial ministry and the investment authority will take measures to protect the legal rights and interests of Chinese investors in Kenya.

The general manager and Zhang Xingcheng, deputy director-general of the Department of Commerce of Shandong province, signed a MOU for mutual cooperation between the Kenya Investment Authority and the Department of Commerce of Shandong province.