The Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority (BEDIA) forges ahead this week with its matchmaking mandate to help Botswana businesses find trading and operating partners beyond the country’s borders.
Chief Executive Officer Mmasekgowa Mwamba-Masire said through the Global Expo billed to start this week BEDIA hopes to use the platform to extend networking opportunities to Botswana businesses to showcase their products and services.
Through Global Expo, Botswana businesses are expected to obtain international trading and operating partners.
With Global Expo, BEDIA has gone an extra mile to bring to the doorstep potential business allies from all over the country.
As such she said it is important that as many as is possible Botswana businesses ÔÇô large and small, come forward to seize on this opportunity.
The Expo offers Botswana businesses a rare and cheaper opportunity for them to initiate long lasting business relationships that will not only add value to their operations but would also catapult them into the global market.
The exhibition will over and above everything be a networking platform that will give participating businesses, opportunities and avenues to for implore new synergies with potential partners from outside the country.
Masire-Mwamba said the plan is to make Global Expo an annual calendar item marked for October.
The exhibition will offer Botswana businesses, especially small ones, an opportunity to interact and come face to face not only with their potential customers, but also with potential foreign partners who could help in adding value to their products.
The Expo is also important in as far as it can help identify potential customers and consumers for Botswana products in larger and more lucrative markets as well as establish new business connections for Botswana businesses.
The intention is to initiate lasting business partnerships that could, in the long term, prove profitable for Botswana business especially emerging ones.
This is important in the light of the fact that Botswana businesses are grappling with a number of obstacles like penetrating new markets and adding value to their products.
Global Expo is expected, in a way, to help resolve some of the constraints faced by Botswana companies stemming from the smaller market, which is a result of a small population.
She says the private sector will take the centre stage hence the Expo, touted to become an annual affair. The Expo is co sponsored by De Beers Botswana and Debswana.
President Festus Mogae will be the key speaker, with Debswana MD Blackie Marole the second keynote speaker.
The list of interested companies shows that a wide spectrum of businesses in both the manufacturing and services sector, with some coming from as far as China, would be participating.
Masire-Mwamba says it is important that the public understands that unlike other related shows, at Global Expo selling of goods, if at all, will be limited because the primary objective is to bring business people together, establish networks and exchange business cards.
The overriding objective, she reiterated, is not to make money at the show but rather to provide a platform for future growth and expansion of businesses through matchmaking them with businesses from outside.
