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The Shipping and Forwarding Agents Association of Zimbabwe (SFAAZ) will on Friday hold its 9th annual conference in Harare where a number of cross cutting issues will be discussed, an official has said. SFAAZ chief executive officer Mr Joseph Musariri said the meeting will be held under the theme: “Innovative solutions for freight, overcoming Zimbabwe’s challenges.”
He said the conference had initially been set for 26 July but was postponed to pave way for harmonised elections which were held on 31 July.
“Once in a year we sit down to reflect on the movement of cargo into and out of the country with government and other relevant stakeholders.
“We need to share ideas on how best we can facilitate international trade as forwarding agents complemented by the government and other players in the industry.
“This also comes at the most opportune time as we have just won the bid to host the FIATA’s Region Africa and Middle East (RAME) field conference next year after outbidding United Arab Emirates and Egypt at the just-ended annual congress held in Singapore,” he said.
RAME is made up mainly of forwarding agencies from Middle East and Africa.
He said the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Dr Obert Mpofu, would be among the speakers.
“This will be a great opportunity for us as forwarding agents, business and government to come up with the best ways we can facilitate free trade with the rest of the world.
“We will be having Zimbabwe Revenue Authority’s Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) and representatives from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Exchange Control Division among other key partners,” he said.
Mr Musariri said later in the day they would have a graduation ceremony for 143 people who were trained on customs legislation procedures.
He said 73 freight forwarders will be issued with certificates after undergoing a three-month course while the rest would get diplomas for the same course after undergoing training for 6 months.
Mr Musariri said SFAAZ had been accredited to offer the training by FIATA (International Federation of Freight Forwarders Association).
He said these were trained in Beitbridge, Bulawayo, Harare and Nyamapanda.
“The three months is for people who are already in the forwarding industry who have not done any formal training before, while the diploma course is open to all those who are interested in customs issues,” he said.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter