The Sunday News
THE 56th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair which ended in Bulawayo yesterday has been hailed as highly successful with improved exhibition quality despite economic challenges the country is experiencing.
The five-day annual event which started on Tuesday ran under the theme “Stimulating Exports: Seizing Opportunities to Accelerate Growth under Zim Asset”.
Officially closing the exhibition yesterday, Industry and Commerce Minister Cde Mike Bimha commended local companies for their continued trust in the exhibition although some were facing challenges brought about by the liquidity problems.
“Generally we are very happy and we can conclude that it (ZITF) was a successful showcase and one looks at the environment that most of our industry and most of our players in industry are really facing severe challenges but despite that there is that willingness to continue to operate and willingness to showcase and be seen and be heard and that to me is a commendable attitude because that’s really what resilience is all about,” he said.
Among the major highlights of this year’s trade fair were the International Business Conference officially opened by Vice-President Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa and attended by captains of Industry and other policy makers on Wednesday.
Zambian President Edgar Lungu officially opened the trade fair on Thursday after a tour with President Mugabe where the two leaders interacted with both local and international exhibitors.
Cde Bimha said despite the difficulties, the country needed to find ways of going around these challenges.
His deputy Cde Chiratidzo Mabuwa told the International Business Conference that among the strategies was the launch of a flexible Dimaf fund that would be availed soon.
“So I think when one looks at the performance of generally the economy at the moment and the number of exhibitions and also particularly the quality of the exhibitions one can conclude that it was really a successful show,” Cde Bimha said.
This year’s show was compact and structured occupying a total of 45 583 square metres which represented 91 percent of the space made available for sale.
It had a total of 611 exhibitors taking up space compared to 654 last year and of these 388 were direct exhibitors while 223 were indirect exhibitors.
International representation was strong with 19 nations participating.
The countries were represented by 32 direct and 103 indirect exhibitors.
Foreign representation came from Botswana, China, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, United States of America and Zambia, while Cyprus, Germany, India and Switzerland were represented by individual companies.
In terms of local participation, 53 percent of exhibitors came from Harare, 33 percent from Bulawayo while the remaining 14 percent were from other cities and towns.
“All the concurrent business networking events were also well attended. On Wednesday we had the International Business Conference where 396 delegates comprising business leaders, foreign dignitaries, Government Ministers and officials as well as representatives of academia and civil society took part.”
Cde Bimha said the Scholastica presentations and workshops which ran concurrently with the exhibition were well attended with about 100 high school and tertiary level students attending each session.
“Under the A’sambeni Business Tourism Expo we had 20 A’sambeni buyers from Poland, South Africa and USA visiting the exhibition and touring local tourism facilities,” Cde Bimha said.
He said the market feedback received so far was that exhibitors were happy with the high calibre of invited buyers and were confident of future business opportunities arising from these meetings.
The ZITF charity golf challenge held at the Bulawayo Golf Club on Friday attracted a record 112 golfers and its proceeds were donated to Esandleni Sothando.
As is the norm, the last day of the showcase attracted thousands of people mostly children that thronged the traditional Lunar Park in the company of their parents or elders.
This year the ZITF Company reduced business days to the first two and dedicated three days to the public as part of its efforts of ensuring that the generality embraces the showcase and its wide range of activities at the exhibitions.
Exhibitors yesterday expressed mixed reactions on the overall impact of the fair but generally agreed that they hoped the linkages they formed would help spur their business.
Stop to Start International founder Mr Zwelibanzi Ndlovu said a number of school children visited his stand where he held a number of discussions on transformational leadership.
“It was really a success. The country has scored highly on indigenisation of companies but after that we still continue to use foreign ideas to evaluate and run those companies. We need to start using the indigenous business models to manage businesses in Zimbabwe and that is what such events like ZITF must ensure that they promote,” he said. Stop to Start exhibited under the Scholastica section.
Mr Oswald Sakutukwa of Family Fireplaces and Braais said the company managed to get numerous inquiries and even sold some of its product compared to last year.
“For us this year’s exhibition has been a success as we managed to get overwhelming inquiries and even sold some of our products. We usually advertise in the Press but fail to attract a huge response as the one witnessed here.
Family Fireplaces and Braais is a Harare based company which specialises in the manufacturing of fireplace, braai and chimney products.
Moonlight Funeral Assurance marketing and public relations manager Ms Auxullia Dzenga said this year’s fair did not have much hype compared to last year but added that as a business it gave them an opportunity to interact one-on-one with their clients and prospective clients.
“For us we had considerable business as we managed to attract new clients that took our policy and we even had the opportunity to interact with our old clients with queries on one on one basis.
“I, however, think last year’s exhibition was better than this year because this time we have a number of empty stands but I am glad to say that over the last two days of the exhibition we saw a huge turnout of people and that was good for a business of our nature,” she said.
Ms Dzenga said a number of people who visited the company’s stand expressed interest in their new product zororo/phumulani, which is specifically designed to serve Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa.
“People made many inquiries about our zororo/phumulani product. This might be in light with the xenophobia attacks in South Africa. This product is very affordable as one can pay as little as 35 Rand and get free repatriation and be offered all the funeral services that we give to locals,” she said.
Hawkflight Construction’s marketing officer Miss Khanyile Msipa said business at this year’s fair was low compared to last year.
“To say the truth on our side business was low, we didn’t receive many inquiries and even if you look around some of the stands are vacant,” she said.
Meanwhile, Bulawayo police spokesman Inspector Madlenkosi Moyo said they would release statistics of any incidents that happened during ZITF today.
“We can only compile what happened after the ZITF but there was police presence at the ground to maintain peace,” he said.
Sunday News observed that police were present around the ZITF grounds and in town maintaining order.
There were minor skirmishes between police and some of the youths. Over the years some youths after taking alcohol, would go on the rampage damaging property.
