The Sunday News
Shepias Dube Business Reporter
MORE 300 Small to Medium Enterprises drawn from the country’s 10 provinces, are expected to attend the International Business Expo to be held in Harare at the end of this month, an official has said. In an interview on Thursday, Harare chamber of SMEs secretary-general Mr Donald Gwisai, who is also the organiser of the event, said close to 150 business entities have already registered for the event that will run between 28 July and 2 August.
“We have invited slightly over 300 local SMEs to participate at the forthcoming international business expo and half of them have confirmed their presence by paying a registration fee.
“The rest have assured us that they will be making bookings on or before the third week of July,” said Mr Gwisai.
He said those in the value addition and manufacturing sector, especially agro-processing, were leading the pack with close to 100 organisations having registered to date. Notable among those involved are in agro-business, leather manufactures, handcraft and clothing technology.
He said a number of financial institutions have also shown keen interest in taking part at the expo.
Mr Gwisai said the participation of organisations that specialise in value addition showed the commitment of the informal sector in promoting the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) that calls for value addition and beneficiation.
He said they have deliberately invited representatives from all over the country so that everybody would have an appreciation of the international culture of doing business.
He said 15 countries have been invited and including Iran, India, Malaysia, Seychelles, South Africa and Malawi. Iran, which has built good relations with the informal sector in Zimbabwe, is expected to bring the biggest number of exhibitors.
He said the two countries will use the business expo to finalise a possible partnership with those in the pharmaceutical industry.
The first phase of the agreement will see pharmaceutical companies from Iran supplying drugs to Zimbabwe for retail purposes.
The second phase, which is expected to be after a year or two, will see the supply of raw materials to Zimbabwe companies with the capacity to manufacture drugs.
Mr Gwisai said local SMEs were also set to benefit from the Indian delegation which will be exhibiting agricultural and construction equipment.
Meanwhile, Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development Deputy Minister Noveti Muponori said he was optimistic that the partnership between local SMEs and Iran will materilise.
“The MoU on Zimbabwe and Iran SMEs has been on the cards for quite some time and information at hand indicates that the whole deal is to be finalised at the international business expo,” said Deputy Minister Muponori.
He said the Iranian Minister of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare Mr Ali Rabiei is expected to witness the signing ceremony.
