Malawi's international trade fair begins May 16

The Malawi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) says this year's International Trade Fair, which will be the 20th since its inception shall begin on May 16 at the Chichiri Trade Fair Grounds in Blantyre, and is scheduled to ran for a period of nine days.

Speaking in an interview with Nyasa Times, the Chamber's Membership Development Manager Edna Chamgwera indicated that so far eight foreign countries and the European Union, in addition to 198 domestic companies have confirmed participation.

"So far, we have got eight countries including the EU delegation on the international level and locally there are 198 small and large companies," said Chamgwera, indicating that foreign participants are in two categories, individual companies and those under umbrella governments.

Currently, as indicated by MCCI, foreign countries that have confirmed participation include Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Republic of South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Among the registered domestic institutions, there is Press Corporation Limited (PCL) and its subsidiaries, Illovo Sugar Group, Unilever South East Africa, BATA Shoe Company, Agricultural Development & Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), One Village One Product (OVOP) and the University of Malawi (UNIMA).

According to Chamgwera, her office was still getting a lot of enquiries from other countries as well as local and foreign business entities and she was so optimistic the number of participants would tremendously shoot before closure of registration on Friday (tomorrow).

"We are still getting a lot of enquiries from foreign companies and nations and I think as we will be closing registration this coming Friday, we are going to have a lot of them registered," she observed, indicating most existing international participants were yet to confirm their presence.

The Membership Development Manager gave an assurance that the 2008 international trade fair would be exciting as compared to the previous years', which had been raising so many concerns from the general public in terms of poor organization and patronage.

"Participants should expect an exciting trade fair this year as it will be totally different from the previous fairs, which were raising so many concerns from the general public. We have set-up an organizing team comprising Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Industry and Trade as well as the Malawi Exports Promotion Council (MEPC), and they are working hand-in-hand to make sure that we have a prosperous event," she indicated.

Chamgwera observed that even though this year's theme for the event is Promoting Export Led Growth through Regional Trade, there is need for general participation by the private and public sectors as well as non-governmental organizations.

Apart from the business community, there are also trade facilitating institutions to participate including Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS), Malawi Investment Promotion Agency (MIPA), and Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA).