The Sunday News
THE curtain came down yesterday on the 56th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) after a packed five days of business and trade with many lessons drawn from the country’s premier trade showcase.
Addressing a Press Conference on the fair yesterday, Minister of Industry and Commerce Mike Bimha described this year’s show as compact and structured occupying a total of 45 583 square metres, which represented 91 percent of the space, which was available for sale.
There were 611 exhibitors at this year’s show with 19 countries participating in the exhibition and those countries were represented by 32 direct foreign exhibitors and 103 indirect exhibitors. In terms of local participation, 53 percent of exhibitors came from Harare while 33 percent were from Bulawayo. The concurrent business events such as the International Business Conference, Scholastica and A’Sambeni Business Tourism Expo were also well attended.
This year the ZITF Company reduced business days to the first two and dedicated three days for the public as part of its efforts of ensuring that the generality of people embrace 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.
Although some of the country’s detractors as usual jumped at the opportunity of criticising the trade fair, saying it was poorly attended and was a reflection of the poor economy, we can proudly say the show was a success, what with the national representation of countries such as Botswana, China, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, USA and Zambia. Other countries such as Cyprus, Germany, India and Switzerland were represented by individual companies.
The confidence shown by the above-mentioned countries is an indication that Zimbabwe, despite the challenges it is going through because of the evil sanctions imposed on it by the West because of its revolutionary land reform programme, is still an attractive and strategic economic destination.
It is against this background that the business community should move out of their shells and take advantage of the ZITF to showcase the potential they have. While we understand the challenges that they are going through, sitting down in despair will not solve anything for us as a country, but there is a need to be proactive and take advantage of the presence of foreign businesses. We say so because exhibitions by nature are open to a large diverse range of audiences to provide business platforms to promote products and services. This has the advantage of providing opportunities for trading and creating customer databases.
Those who took part in the exhibition should also vigorously make follow-ups to the business inquiries so as to achieve the much needed desires. Our businesses should not sit back and relax after the ZITF, but should attend exhibitions in neighbouring countries as they also provide a platform for business deals.
In the event that individual businesses cannot make it on their own because of the costs involved, then they can come together and share the burden of attending such important events. We also urge Bulawayo companies to be more active during the trade fair. We are aware that a majority of companies in the city are also struggling hence reduced participation by 35 percent but this does not mean all hope is lost.
Those companies that did not exhibit must start working towards taking part at next year’s exhibition.
They might be running on tight budgets but it is at such events that linkages that can help turn around their fortunes can be struck.
The organisers — ZITF Company — are also in business but they must come up with packages that promote more participation especially by local companies.
The ZITF Company can come up with flexible payment plans for local companies in view of the economic situation they are in so they are not left out of the premier trade exhibition of Southern Africa.
