Foreign countries and companies are displaying increasing interest in the country’s international exhibition, the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF). This was revealed by the ZITF Company Chief Executive Officer, Dr Nicholas Ndebele during an update to the media in Bulawayo on Monday this week.
The event is set to run from 23 to 27 April 2024 under the theme: “Entrepreneurship: The catalyst for Industrialisation and Trade.”
Dr Ndebele highlighted that the number of foreign exhibitors that have confirmed participation in this year’s edition so far had increased to 30, up from last year’s figure of 22. This represents a 36.4 percent upsurge in the number of foreign exhibitors when compared to last year’s numbers.
“Space uptake by foreign exhibitors has also been good with 30 international exhibitors from 24 different nations being represented at ZITF2024, up from 22 countries last year,” Dr Ndebele said.
The ZITF boss indicated that to date, exhibitors from Botswana, Belarus, the People’s Republic of China, the European Union, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Iran, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America and Zambia had confirmed participation at this year’s event.
Turning to the preparations for the event, Dr Ndebele said that the exhibition had been fully subscribed in record time.
“We are currently sitting at 97 percent of space capacity with 486 exhibitors who have taken up 48,199m2 square metres. This places us almost at par with the booking situation at the same time last year, where 48,408m2 had been booked (97.7 percent),” he said.
Commenting on the events and engagements, which will run concurrently with the trade fair, Dr Ndebele said they would centre on the role of entrepreneurship in facilitating the various facets of industrialisation and trade. The concurrent events present opportunities for networking,
“The upcoming discussions will focus on the impact of entrepreneurship on industrialisation and trade, opportunities for international collaboration and investment, strategies for fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems and innovative approaches to overcome trade barriers and promote global market access. We are expecting a mix of local and international programme participants as well as attendees,” he said.
The main concurrent events include the ZITF International Business Conference, the Africa Symposium, the ZITF Charity Golf Challenge and the Innovators Forum.
Kenyan President, William Ruto is expected to officially open this year’s edition of the trade fair.
