ZimTrade gears for exporters conference

National trade development and promotion body, ZimTrade, will hold this year’s edition of its annual exporters conference on October 19 at Meikles Hotel in Harare.

One of the major events on Zimbabwe’s corporate calendar will kick off with a buyer’s seminar on October 18 at the same venue. Over 10 buyers from regional and international markets have been invited to participate.

The conference will bring together key stakeholders in the export business under one roof to discuss ways of stimulating production and export growth.

‘Exporting into The Future’ is this year’s theme of the conference, which dovetails into the aspirations of the country’s Vision 2030 of becoming a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income economy.

It will bring business leaders, policymakers, and members of the exporting community together to dialogue and develop solutions to improve the country’s trade balance and drive exports-led economic growth.

Buyers will be able to engage in business-to-business meetings with suppliers of the products such as fast-moving consumer goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, agricultural inputs and implements, mining supplies and engineering.

Several local and international speakers have been lined up to unpack issues affecting exporters and share their knowledge and experiences.

“This year’s theme will provide a platform for stakeholders in the exporting business to take stock of milestones achieved and lay a foundation for the development of a futuristic policy to guide export growth going forward,” said ZimTrade in a statement.

This is coming at a time when Zimbabwe’s trade deficit declined 5,4 percent to US$170, 1 million in August 2023 from US$179, 8 million in the prior month of July.

The country’s total value exports in August 2023 stood at US$649, 8 million from US$603,2 million recorded in July 2023, translating to a 7,7 percent increase.

On the other hand, total imports for August 2023 were US$819, 9 million from US$783, 1 million reported in July 2023 which is a 4, 7 percent increase.

This year’s edition of the exporters’ conference comes at a time when the life of the current National Trade Policy is expected to come to an end this year.

The policy sought to grow the exports of manufactured goods by 10 percent per annum from 2019-2023.

As per the norm, the conference programme will be capped off with an Award Gala Dinner on the evening of October 19, 2023 at the Meikles Hotel.

The awards gala is an event where top exporters in a range of categories will be recognised for their role in growing the country’s exports.

Deliberations from this year’s conference are expected to contribute to the national trade development and promotion organisation’s improvement of Zimbabwe’s export capacity and the ease of doing export business.-herald