The Sunday Mail
Victoria Ruzvidzo
Zimbabwe has been presented with a golden opportunity to showcase its trade and investment opportunities, rich culture, arts and all it has to offer at the Dubai Expo slated for October 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. We cannot afford to miss this.
The advent of Covid-19 and its attendant restrictions have compromised engagement and re-engagements efforts since early last year but here is a grand opportunity where the country will be one of the 191 countries and other global institutions participating at the expo.
This is the first Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia and is being touted as one of the most important in exposition history.
Last week Zimbabwe’s Commissioner-General for Expo 2020 Ambassador Mary Mubi said Government had invested a significant amount of money to ensure Zimbabwe would exhibit the best it has at the global event. This is as it should be and the return on such an investment will be quite high.
I had the opportunity to attend the Aichi Expo in Japan in 2005 (attended by 22 million visitors over 185 days) with Zimtrade, and the Shanghai Expo in China in 2010 (attended by a record 73 million visitors over six months). These two produced phenomenal results for both host countries and exhibitors. I have thus experienced first-hand the activities there and how critical it is for a country such as ours to ensure it takes its best of the best to seize every possible opportunity.
It is a showcase where the world meets literally. New innovations are introduced, information and knowledge shared and business deals cut, transforming economies in a big way. These are not just short term gains but long-term also as they continue to impact positively even years after the event.
The Dubai Expo theme is “Connecting Minds and Creating the Future through Sustainability, Mobility and Opportunity”.
Zimbabwe’s sub-theme: “Zimbabwe- Land of Great Opportunities resonates well with the overall theme.
This country is at a stage in its economy where it would benefit from such a platform in the strides towards a middle-income economy by 2030. It is a vision well-articulated and one that could gain currency from the impending Dubai Expo.
The organisers have said as much.
“The wide-ranging business events calendar will feature a number of Thematic Business Forums, delivered in collaboration with Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as three Global Business Forums, including the first edition of the Global Business Forum ASEAN. These events will highlight emerging business opportunities, cutting-edge technologies, and serve as a platform to connect, create and innovate. They will also accelerate private sector progress across current global challenges including climate change and biodiversity, space, and knowledge and learning.
“Products and services offered as part of Thrive Together include an AI-powered app, facilitating meaningful B2B, B2G and G2G connections across geographies and industries, suggesting potential matches for users based on their profiles, expertise, objectives and interaction patterns; a dynamic and ever-evolving Business Calendar, carrying the latest information on inbound business delegations, as well as all business events taking place across the Expo site; and access to the Business Connect Centre, which will house chambers of commerce and trade entities from across the region, as well as investment houses and venture capitalists,” read a statement on the official website.”
At least 170 such expositions have been held since the 1800s. Significant and life-transforming inventions have over the years been launched at such platforms.
Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the world’s first telephone in 1876 at Philadelphia’s Centennial Exposition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine.
The Japan World Exposition Osaka 1970 gave visitors the first opportunity to discover the connectivity mobile-phone technology offered.
A number of inventions are already lined up Dubai Expo 2020.
Perhaps the greatest opportunity for Zimbabwe to tell its story comes on its national day where the entire expo’s focus will be on the country with the main pavilion hosting all that the country has to showcase.
Zimbabwe needs to invest its all in this to make sure that we convince even the most sceptical of investors that this country is the place to be. Those that have been sitting on the fence had better jump to our side, bringing the dollars along. Our case has to be convincing to the extent that those that had not given this country a thought in terms of doing real business, will be left with no choice but to head this way on the next flight.
We cannot put up a mediocre exhibition and expect great results. The private sector should partner Government to produce a flawless six-month act at the expo, particularly on Zimbabwe’s National Day. It is not every day that we get an opportunity where the world’s full attention focuses on one country. We are talking about governments, big businesses, the academia, scientists, economists and everyone that matters in Zimbabwe’s journey to 2030 and beyond. Other African countries and the rest of the world will also be competing for attention on their respective national days so we need to put up a solid performance.
The beauty about Zimbabwe is that it has elicited so much attention for the right reasons and the wrong ones too but they say nothing is entirely bad. We, therefore, need to harvest the attention that we have received over the years and turn it into profit.
The world also needs to be disabused of the negative perception that has occupied acres of space in print and online media, and through word of mouth by our haters. At one time Zimbabwe was dubbed Africa’s best kept secret, particularly in terms of tourism but now is the time to change all that.
This country is replete with opportunities across sectors. They just need exposure. The kind that Dubai Expo 2020 is providing.
“Whilst being a spectacular entertainment destination, Expo 2020 offers fantastic opportunities for business. From local start-ups to global conglomerates, Expo 2020 is the ideal platform for networking, educational and industry events featuring unique offerings for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions,” says the organisers.
Zimbabwe has 46 days now to polish its act and ensure all is in place. Zimtrade, the Zimbabwe Investment Authority, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Mines, the Small Scale Miners Association, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, the Hospitality Association, the Zimbabwe Traditional Grains Producers Association and all these bodies should be busy putting final touch-ups to their strategies.
New innovations borrowed from other exhibitors and the knowledge gained will be critical in revolutionising the way we do business. Sometimes we need not reinvent the wheel but assimilate and adopt what has worked in other economies in Asia and other regions of the world.
They also have a thing or two to learn from us hence the value in the sharing of experiences.
We can never go wrong with the exposure that comes with participating at such grand platforms. Such aspects as food and agriculture, mining, manufacturing, education and health will be under the spotlight. These dovetail with this country’s National Development Strategy 1 and the general build-up to Vision 2030.
Zimbabwe’s relations with Dubai itself have assumed higher levels under the Second Republic, culminating in the hugely successful Zimbabwe-Dubai business conference held a few months ago. The country can also build on this and seize more opportunities with Dubai, a country leading the world on many fronts.
“Thrive Together builds on the UAE’s reputation for facilitating business and trade, with world-class infrastructure, business-friendly regulatory frameworks and a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. It also leverages the connecting power of Expo 2020 Dubai, which across 182 days will bring together 191 nations, as well as multilateral organisations, academic institutions and millions of visitors to inspire meaningful change and create a brighter future for all.”
Dubai Expo 2020 here we come!
In God I Trust!
Twitter handle: @VictoriaRuzvid2; Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; WhatsApp number: 0772 129 972.
