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Business Writer

ZIMTRADE chief executive officer, Mr Allan Majuru, has paid tribute to Government for the honour of being appointed to lead the country’s campaign as Commissioner General at the Osaka Expo 2025 in Japan and pledged to ensure Zimbabwe delivers a world-class exhibition at the event.

On Tuesday the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Ambassador James Manzou, announced the commencement of the country’s campaign preparations ahead of the global expo, which will run under the theme: “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”

The expo will be supported by three sub-themes, which are; connecting lives, saving lives and empowering lives. Zimbabwe will be participating in the ‘connecting lives’ sub-theme, which resonates well with the country’s e-engagement effort and President Mnangagwa’s assertion that ‘Zimbabwe is open for business

In his statement on preparations for the expo, Mr Majuru said the sub-theme highlights Zimbabwe’s efforts in enriching communities through mutually beneficial partnerships, the power co-creation, and how the country is leveraging on technology to uplift livelihoods.

“This world expo is a platform for Zimbabwe to consolidate and position itself as a preferred destination market for tourism and investment and as a source market for goods and services,” said Mr Majuru.

“The country has recorded important milestones in its re-engagement efforts under the mantra ‘friend to all and enemy to none’ and I would like to leverage on the achievement by His Excellency President E. D. Mnangagwa to reach out to millions of people who are expected to grace this occasion.”

Mr Majuru said the Osaka 2025 Expo is expected to host 28 million visitors from across the world and revealed that to date, over 150 countries have confirmed their participation in the event.

The organisers of the Osaka 2025 Expo are confident of surpassing the 24 million visitors from around the world and the 192 country pavilions recorded by Expo 2020 Dubai where Zimbabwe also participated and recorded key milestones.

“The partnerships established in Dubai during the expo period continue to bring benefits to the country as we are seeing an increase in investment, trade and visitors from the Asian continent,” he said.

“Since Expo 2020 Dubai, the Zimbabwean Embassy in Abu Dhabi is now the busiest in terms of inquiries on business opportunities and the Zimbabwe diaspora community in UAE (United Arab Emirates) has reorganised and successfully launched the Zimbabwe Business Council. The Council is now playing a central role in marketing Zimbabwe in the UAE,” said Mr Majuru.

“I am hopeful that our participation in Osaka 2025 World Expo will bring more benefits as we leverage on our successes in past world expos and demonstrate to the world that ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’.”

Mr Majuru said Zimbabwe will exhibit its products and services in the ‘Organiser-Built Shared Pavilion’ where it will showcase its unique offerings, facilitate business-to-business meetings, commercial activities, cultural exchanges and wet demonstrations.

“We will also conduct side events such as trade and investment seminars, business forum, and sampling African cuisines among other activities to amplify our presence in Japan,” he said.

Zimbabwe is also expected to hold its ‘National Day’ celebrations at this global event where a number of activities will be undertaken to aggressively market the destination.

Mr Majuru said the country’s participation in the expo will be a multi-stakeholder approach and revealed that six sub-committees comprising of members from both the private and public sectors will be set up to assist in planning.

The subcommittees will focus on different areas to ensure the success of Zimbabwe participation such as finance and budgeting, procurement, logistics, national, event and exhibitions, among others.

“These subcommittees will be reporting to the National Coordinating Committee chaired by myself and consisting of stakeholders from private and public sectors as well, for decision making,” said Mr Majuru.

He said major national objectives for taking part in the Osaka 2025 expo include: promoting Brand Zimbabwe campaign through showcasing diverse products, promoting trade and investment opportunities, as well as tourist attractions, benchmarking Zimbabwe’s product offering and processes against international best practices, gathering intelligence on the latest innovations and how to apply them to the Zimbabwean context to attain our SDGs and e-engaging with the international community.

Mr Majuru said among the expected outcomes from the expo will be increased tourist arrivals by at least 15 percent per annum, widening trade and investments by 10 percent annually, improved national brand value, forging at least 20 new partnerships and learning from Japan and participating countries on latest best practice and technology in use in industry.

“Members of the public and the business community can participate and benefit from our involvement in Osaka 2025 World Expo,” he said.

“Zimbabweans can participate by supplying goods products for commercial activities, supplying goods and services for the Zimbabwe pavilion, participate in stakeholder consultation programmes by planning committees, provide information on business opportunities and providing market intelligence.”