Europe and US snub ZITF again
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=28300
March 25, 2010
By Our Correspondent
BULAWAYO – European and United States companies continue to snub the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) with only one exhibitor expected from that side at this year’s trade showcase.
Addressing journalists at a press conference held at the trade fair grounds on Thursday, the new ZITF Chairman Bhekitemba Nkomo revealed that European and US companies were not attending this year’s exhibition.
“This year we only have one small consultant company from the UK but as from the US and other European countries there are none,” said Nkomo.
Nkomo said most “foreign exhibitors expected at this year’s trade showcase are mainly from Asian countries like Iran, India and China”.
There is also a reduction in the number of both local and foreign companies compared to last year as few have already confirmed participation.
“We have 496 local and 31 foreign companies who have confirmed participation this year, compared to last year’s 700 and 70 respectively,” ZITF general manger Daniel Chigaru also told journalists.
Chigaru said they had raised charges from US$25 to US$35 per square metre for the exhibition space in order to cover expenses of running the fair which he said had gone up rapidly.
Last year, ZITF organisers were almost forced to postpone the trade showcase after exhibitors, including locals, started pulling out in large numbers citing high participation costs.
As a result, the ZITF Company was forced to drastically revise downwards the exhibition fees for last year’s fair.
This year ZITF Company is hard-pressed to have many foreign countries participating at the trade showcase as President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s year-old power-sharing government tries to woo much needed investment to drive its ambitious economic revival programme.
ZITF, once one of the premier trade fairs in Africa, has lost its glamour after 10 years of an acute economic crisis that set in after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut financial assistance to the Harare
government. IMF did this in protest over the behavior of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF regime in brutalizing opposition supporters.