The 56th edition of this year’s Maputo International Fair (FACIM), to be held from 30 August to 5 September this year, will be held, for the first time, in a face-to-face and virtual model, as a way of preventing the spread of covid-19, as a result of the potential agglomeration of exhibitors and visitors.
The decision was taken by the Government and announced by the Minister of Industry and Trade, Carlos Mesquita, who said that this year edition could be innovative in the sense that the exhibitors and visitors could interact face-to-face and virtually being inside or outside the FACIM enclosure located in Ricatla, in Marracuene district, Maputo province.
The digital platform that will be made available to the public will allow any exhibitor to commercialize its product in a virtual way, being that, for the effect, the exhibitor only needs to acquire space and tickets in the electronic page to be assigned a stand in the pavilion (virtual) of its province.
Then, the exhibitor will have to send photographs and videos of the products to be exhibited and will be able to virtually follow the usual conferences on business opportunities, investments and the internationalisation of companies.
The tool will make it easier, among other services, for exhibitors who are not physically at Ricatla to know how many companies are taking part, how many visitors have accessed their products, and to establish contacts with other national and international exhibitors.
Carlos Mesquita made this announcement during the holding of the award ceremony for the best exporter of 2020 and, on the same occasion, made it known that the 56th edition of FACIM, to be held this year, will take place under the motto “Industrialisation: Innovation and Diversification of the National Economy”.
Regarding the awarded companies, Mesquita explained that they are Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that in 2020 exported several products to the markets of South Africa and the United States of America, despite the adversities that the world has been facing due to the adverse effects of covid-19.
He said that the recognition to those companies should serve as an incentive for the persistence that they have been demonstrating to place Mozambican products abroad, even with the challenges in the market.
“Believing that everything is possible, we hope that the businessmen use this edition to establish contacts to exchange experiences taking into account the period in which we are. Therefore, this exercise must be done by scrupulously following the sanitary protocol so that that place is not the focus of covid-19 propagation,” he stressed.
In turn, the representative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Pete Gauthier, said that last year the country exported more than $137 million in products such as seafood, sugar cane, minerals, nuts, among other products, to the American market, through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) programme.
In the same period, according to Gauthier, Mozambique exported to South Africa about US$658 million in various products, including fuel, aluminium, oils and products used in the distillation process.
In the same period, according to Pete Gauthier, Mozambique exported to South Africa around US$658 million worth of goods, mainly fuel, aluminium, oils and products used in the distillation process.
The president of the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), Agostinho Vuma, said in his turn that exports had been affected due to restrictions on economic activities.
Last year, for example, the volume of exports at the national level was US$3.58 billion, corresponding to a decrease of 23 percent compared to 2019.
Even though, according to Vuma, covid-19 was the determining factor for the national economic recession, there are other structural factors that have constrained the competitiveness of companies, namely, the deficient information on export markets, difficulties in accessing financing, barriers to obtaining certification that enables compliance with international quality standards for products, among others.
“In spite of these challenges we want to praise the efforts that the award winners have shown to prove that with resilience, reinvention and commitment we can make a difference in a context of adversity.
