IT has been three weeks since the Zambia International Trade Fair (ZITF) ran business and pleasure from July 1 to 7, 2015 on exhibition stands, main arena and Mukuba Hotel in Ndola.
This year’s trade fair, the 51st, was graced by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta under the theme “Prosperity through Business Reforms and Linkages.”
As their custom is, ZITF delays in releasing attendance and monetary figures that are vital in reviewing such an annual event.
ZITF general manager Alex Mayeya who was contacted last week said his management would release the figures today.
“We have the information with us, but will release them at a meeting scheduled for today,” Mr Mayeya said.
About K78,000 earlier said to have been raised from tickets sales which is an improvement from last year’s K69,000.
A total of 471 exhibitors and 17 countries participated this year as compared to 12 countries last year.
The K2.5-million injection into the preparation of this year’s fair bore fruit going by the resurfaced inner roads, a move that “settled” the traditional dust that ever characterised previous shows.
At least sanity prevailed as vendors were confined  to trade zone, leaving the inside arenas clear of the habitual congestion.
President Kenyatta, however, was clear in his opening message when he called for increased  trade among Africans and that the continent should create more jobs locally to empower the youth.
There is need to remove trade barriers among African countries to increase trade as the continent takes such fairs as shop windows for their products.
“I feel that Zambia and Kenya should remove barriers that hinder trade, we should also encourage the establishment of jobs for our youth if we are to reduce in exporting manpower,” Mr Kenyatta says.
Kenya, a country stronger on tourism has implemented reforms such as visa issuance right at their airport without stringent restrictions.
Local exhibitors, especially those from tourism industry confirmed picking up lessons from their Kenyan counterparts.
“We have noticed how our friends from Kenya add value to simple products like handcrafts, footwear and juices that attract international market,” said a Zambian tourism official.
Among the 17 foreign countries that exhibited at this year’s fair was Kenya from where Kapa Oils Refineries Limited has invested in Ndola.
Other participating countries were China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Japan, Namibia, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America,
Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
On the sidelines, the ZITF partnered with the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) to host the second Business Forum, following the first one held in 2014.
Such were highly interactive plenary sessions resulting in enriched presentations by Government, private sector and experts of the industry.
Topics included marketing, banking, business, investment, infrastructure, energy and education.
Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Margaret Mwanakatwe who sat in some of these discussions notes that such platforms fulfill part of the theme in linking business community, regulators and service providers.
“the ministry was in the process of reviewing the Commercial, Trade and
Industrial Policy in order to come up with two separate policy documents namely the Industrial Policy and the Commercial and Trade
Policy in line with international best practices that will ensure that industry and trade issues are comprehensively addressed.
“In this regard, my ministry has since developed a zero draft Industrial Policy that has since been subjected to stakeholder consultation before finalization.
The review of the Trade Policy is on-going and will be completed soon,” she added.
It was Lafarge Cement Company who emerged best overall exhibitor at this year’s ZITF, The Patriotic Front (PF) party exhibiting for the first time managed to attract the eye of the ZITF board chairperson
and scooped the chairman’s award.
Kenya, being among the countries that exhibited at this year’s event won the first prize for the best international exhibitor award, while the Democratic Republic of Congo emerged second.
In the financial institution sector, Zambia National Commercial Bank got the best Banking Institution Exhibitor award followed by Zambia National Building Society.
One would safely conclude that this year’s ZITF was a success and that participants picked up links to reform their businesses for prosperity.