Online Reporter
The 65th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) was held in Bulawayo recently, with record-breaking attendance and business deals marking the event. Zimpapers Radio’s LINDA MURIRO interviewed ZITF board chairperson BUSISA MOYO on Star FM’s Muriro on Monday programme on insights into this year’s showcase.
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Q: What were the major highlights, key takeaways and lessons learned from the just-ended ZITF?
A: Well, it’s a very difficult question because it was a packed six days of lots of things that touched on different points, meeting different needs — the need to dialogue with policymakers, the need to showcase products and the need to project Zimbabwe to the world. There were so many aspects to it such as reaching out to foreign countries.
So, it’s very difficult to pick out, but from a dialogue point of view, the International Business Conference is always a big highlight. The official opening itself is a highlight.
This year the United States, organised at the Bulawayo Club, a dialogue on investments where our sister organisation I also chair — Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) — held a forum to engage on opportunities to invest in Zimbabwe and take investments into Zimbabwe a notch up and exploring new ideas through very rich conversation.
We also had delegations from India and Mozambique that we hosted on the sidelines of the show. These B2B (business to business) meetings are becoming more central to the design of ZITF, so there were lots of highlights and it may be difficult to pick one.
Q: As far as your expectations from this year’s showcase are concerned, were they met? What would you say about the quality of exhibitions on show?
A: Were our expectations met? Yes! Partly, I think we are relatively satisfied with the show. We obviously want to do better. But it was a success. In terms of exhibitor numbers, if I start there, we were targeting 800 exhibitors, both direct and indirect exhibitors. We ended up with 795. So, we were five short of our target.
I would have liked to surpass our target. But overall, we are very satisfied with the results and what we have been able to do in terms of attracting exhibitors. But the interesting thing was the international aspect of the ZITF. This year, we had 67 international or foreign exhibitors, which is a record. Even before Covid, we were not seeing those numbers in the last 25 years. So, it’s really growing.
We certainly want to continue to increase and improve the international flavour of the exhibition and the regional flavour of the dialogue that we have at ZITF. So, all is trending in the positive direction. We are now going for a bigger number, maybe a thousand exhibitors. Our challenge is space and reorganising the show so that we can get more people in. But there’s also a desire for people to have bigger stands.
Q: In terms investment or trade deals that were signed during the fair, do we have the figures of how many deals were signed?
A: That information is being compiled, but we do have some data even as of now. For example, we have asked people who exhibited whether they had any agreements that were signed. And so far, I can just pick a few. Partnership agreements were signed. I think, of the respondents, four responded to say they signed significant agreements. Those significant agreements include MOUs (memoranda of understanding). There’s an advertising company that signed up for billboard space and outdoor advertising, partnership agreements. We also did ask for the types of transactions that people had, but this is ongoing because a lot of the people are still compiling the figures.
But I can tell you that of our respondents, close to 4 percent recorded transactions of over US$10 million. About 7,4 percent responded that they had concluded deals worth between US$10 000 and US$50 000. We also have the SMEs (small and medium enterprises) category, where 33 percent recorded that they signed deals ranging between US$1 and US$1 000. We also asked companies whether they recorded no deals. About 40 percent of the companies so far say they didn’t record any leads or any deals. The balance of 60 percent or 59,3 percent recorded transactions. But you realise that some of these are NGOs (non-governmental organisatiions).
In total, 59 percent of our exhibitors were from the private sector and 41 percent from the public sector. That’s another statistic that the public would be interested in. Our target is to have 75 percent from the private sector and 25 percent from the public sector. But that 25 percent should be from enabling economic agencies, such as ZIDA and ZimTrade.
We are still collecting the data as people settle back in their offices and compile their figures. But I am pleased to report that 60 percent of the companies that have responded so far say they clinched a deal or they got a lead and generated potential business.
Q: One caller has said the issue with Zimbabwe is not around markets, but that they want to see a production fair, one that promotes production. How would you respond to that?
A: I think we need to be realistic. This is just a trade fair. And we, as a trade fair company, also, we don’t want to get big heads and think that we can solve all the problems in trade. As ZITF, we give, we amplify, profile the products of various programmes that are done by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), by ZimTrade itself, so that we project those products. We don’t want to overreach.
ZITF will never be grooming companies for production. That is not our mandate. But what we must do, which I accept the challenge, is to find out those companies that are up-and-coming start-ups, and we also have the innovators’ forum, where we have investors that sit there whilst young people make pitch.
Old Mutual is there, Nedbank is there, who invest in their ideas. So, we are doing that by providing a small window of a platform. The National Economic Consultative Forum (NECF), on the other hand, is an existing institution for dialogue throughout the year. So, if we want conversations throughout the year about development and so on, they can happen in these other institutions. And then we harvest them at ZITF, profile them, project them to the rest of the world.
On statistics, I’ve already accepted the challenge. Can we improve the statistics? We can improve the statistics by, you know, collecting certain data points. One of the people who completed our survey has already mentioned that. We just need more data points on it.
I know a company that’s in car sales that secured an order for a thousand cars. They have not yet filled in the survey. I called the gentleman, I said, you made a good report, but I don’t see you on the survey. He says, “Mr Moyo, I had four sales reps at my stand. I need them to summarise the figures that they got so that I can fill in the form.”
So, first of all, on the data and statistics, totally agreed. I’m data-driven myself. The institution wants more data.
I’ve already reported that about some of the respondents, who have so far recorded deals of US$10 million.
Of course, remember that the trade fair is not exclusive, because we’ve been criticised. You want the big deals, but we’ve also been criticised to say, well, this is for big business. So, we don’t want to be exclusive at ZITF. We also want to be inclusive, which is why our data is also showing that there are deals at all levels and we’ve got various categories. So, you know, we need to accept this mix. I know we are hungry. I know we are angry about wanting to develop faster. But let’s be realistic to build this up. Let’s not create an omnibus trade fair that tries to solve all the problems in one week. No. We want to rather link up with other institutions.
The India delegation had 12 high-powered delegates and they signed an MOU. That’s where we want it because those are live businesses they can follow through. That’s their business of following through on their particular sectors.
Q: A question from one of our listeners says the ZITF is a platform for trade. But then why do we have political parties exhibiting? What do they produce? What do they trade?
A: You know, in terms of political parties, I think they’re talking about the ZANU PF stand, which was in Hall 5. ZANU PF has programmes in the SMEs sector. And a big chunk of what they had were programmes that they are running as a political party to promote SMEs. Again, as I said, we are inclusive. If party A and party B also have programmes to develop people that are in production, we don’t prohibit them. It’s a Zimbabwean trade fair, all inclusive.
The British stand also had companies that they are grooming within Zimbabwe. So, this is exactly what a trade fair is about, to profile. And if somebody is profiling very good products, impactful products, they are certainly most welcome. We are not exclusive, we are inclusive. So, that’s my answer.
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