EDITORIAL COMMENT: Take advantage of ZITF to grow your businesses

Zimbabwe’s biggest integrated trade and investment exhibition begins in Bulawayo tomorrow. The 57th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) enlivens the city this week as exhibitors and prospective investors troop in for the show that ends on Saturday. It is running under a catchy, three-word theme “Innovate, Integrate, Industrialise”.

One of the highlights of the fair is the official opening ceremony by the President of Togo Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé on Friday. Others include the international business conference to be held on Wednesday at which Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa will officiate.

A day later the ZITF Company, in conjunction with the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, will host the inaugural manufacturing forum, which seeks to link local firms and overseas manufacturers of equipment. On the same day there will be a charity golf challenge at which Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha will participate.

By Thursday, 45,683 square metres of space had been taken, which is 96 percent of the space available at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre. There were 404 direct exhibitors compared to the closing total of 387 at ZITF 2015. The figure includes 32 direct foreign exhibitors, the same as was achieved in 2015, ZITF Company general manager Nomathemba Ndlovu said on Friday.

Nineteen countries are represented including Botswana, People’s Republic of China, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.

Basically all top hotels are fully booked for this week although smaller establishments still had unoccupied rooms yesterday.

We are optimistic that the five-day exposition will facilitate greater trade and investment for the country at a time when the government, industry and commerce are intensifying efforts to reboot the economy after years of decline.

The ZITF, like other fairs elsewhere, summarises the health of the economy.

It has had its challenges which showed in a decline in the number of exhibitors in recent years as compared to the pre-2000 era before the West imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. European and American interest in the fair, as in the domestic economy at large has waned as fewer firms from there are represented.

However, this has failed to dilute the fundamental business content of the ZITF and growing enthusiasm in alternative markets in Asia, witness the massive presence of Chinese firms ever year. Africa has maintained its presence too, with South Africa obviously dominating.

The Western boycott has also failed to extinguish the interest of local business to participate at the ZITF.

We are encouraged that the exhibition, like the national economy that it encapsulates, is on the rebound. President Robert Mugabe expressed this bullish view on Monday last week while officiating at the 36th Independence anniversary.

We see genuine recovery in a few areas of the economy. However, we also assert that there are many others that are still to recover and more work still needs to be done for the hard-pressed majority to be able to detect that modest improvement.

The ZITF is one of the avenues through which these lagging areas can recover and greater impetus rendered to those where recovery has already begun.

We look forward to domestic exhibitors securing deals with their local counterparts and foreign ones for their recovery and growth. We expect them to clinch new markets and expand existing ones, opportunities for finance and new equipment and other tools for expanded progress.

The ZITF is primarily a platform for business, but it also serves as a stage for more relaxed social interactions. Families and friends always pay their way in to enjoy themselves seeing products on display and the numerous entertainment activities at the main arena, Bulawayo Agricultural Show (BAS), the ZBC and defence forces stands. Beyond business therefore, the ZITF facilitates the consolidation of important social relations and can be a stage for new ones to begin.

However, we must say, it is not a place for crime.

The BAS, which runs concurrently with the ZITF is going without the always-popular cattle show as the country continues to battle against the foot-and- mouth disease that was detected at the Bulawayo showground in April last year.

After its detection at the BAS venue, other incidents were reported in Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North. As a result, the government imposed a number of restrictive measures in some zones in the five provinces to ensure the disease does not spread. Public cattle auctions were banned; movement of cattle from infected zones was stopped while animals in affected areas were vaccinated.

Authorities feel that despite these measures, it is not yet time to lift the restrictions; hence the BAS will proceed without cattle on display at the scale we are used to.

Despite the challenges the country is facing, we are confident that ZITF 2016 will be yet another success in focusing attention on Zimbabwe as a secure destination for investment, both local and foreign. It must, furthermore, demonstrate that Zimbabwe is open for business. The show must assert the resilience of the people of Zimbabwe and local business amid the sanctions-induced constraints.

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