Lesson from Africa trade bridge: It’s your time to fly, baby
Witnessing the sight of 3,500 business professionals from Turkey and 45 African countries networking to strike a deal is like watching the National Geographic channel featuring bumblebees that pollinate plants and flowers as they forage for food.
One might sense such a resemblance while observing the third Turkey-Africa Trade Bridge, a gigantic business expo taking place May 13-15 at the İstanbul WOW Convention Center and organized by the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON). Just as it is a welcome sight for gardeners to see bees in flight carrying large loads of pollen into and around their flowerbeds and gardens, TUSKON organizers seem to have been very pleased with the activity on the exhibition floor yesterday.
“It is a very impressive event,” says Kennedy Karori of Kenya, “They have done a great job here.” Karori, a managing director for Nairobi-based Logisys Trading Ltd., is a newcomer to this meeting. TUSKON has set up close to 1,000 tables to facilitate business meetings among Turkish entrepreneurs and their African counterparts. The square footage was doubled to accommodate the record number of participants from the African continent this year. Forty-five African countries are represented here: 20 of them at the ministerial level, one at the vice presidential level and most by high-level officials. The goal of this expo, according to TUSKON officials, is to reach $3 billion in trade volume through deals.
Karori is looking for business opportunities in agricultural machinery and power generators. “The quality of goods is very good here,” he says, adding, “I didn’t expect this level of progress in Turkey.” Another Kenyan, J. N. Nene, agrees. “We can certainly benefit from this highly advanced technology,” he says. Nene, the director of Asami Ltd., a company that deals with packaging materials and equipment, finds prices a little steep, though. He says, “We’ll look for the competition and take a balanced approach.”
Government officials paved the way the other day by laying the groundwork for private businesses to conduct their meetings easily and without much bureaucratic hindrance. TUSKON signed cooperative agreements with close to 30 African countries at the opening ceremony, led by Foreign Trade Minister Kürşad Tüzmen, on Tuesday. African trade bridges have started to bear their fruit already, with many newcomers coming this year. Michael Wamai, a Ugandan counselor based in Tehran, heads a 20-strong Ugandan delegation to the fair. “We don’t have an office in Turkey yet, but we’ll be thinking about opening one up soon,” he adds. The Uganda business group is mainly interested in textiles, food processing, machinery and electronics.
TUSKON has gone out its way to make everything go as smoothly as possible. TUSKON representatives have been assigned to each country to help visitors with the event, accommodation, transportation and more, with most of the costs being borne by TUSKON. There is no entrance or application fee for international participants; the only expenses that visitors need to cover are airfare and accommodation in İstanbul. All other expenses, including food, city transportation, domestic flights, factory site visits, lunch and dinner, are covered by TUSKON.
Guests are not confined to the exhibit hall. There are regular trips from their hotel to the convention center. They will also be taken to on-site visits of factories and technology centers to familiarize them with Turkey’s industrial base. Other cities are also on the itinerary, with the aim of showing visitors what Turkey has to offer them in terms of trade opportunities. Muhammed Deann from Mali came for such a purpose. He would like to see paper and cardboard factories so he can transfer technology to his country.
Organizers made business transactions easier for everyone by setting up a computerized system that automatically matches African businessmen with their Turkish counterparts. Prospective clients need only enter their detailed information into a database when registering for the event, and they get to choose the time and place of a meeting from options presented to them by a centralized information system. After that, all they need to do is wait at their table for the next meeting client to show up. In addition to scheduled meetings, visitors may also promote their business and company information by appearing on plasma screens inside the hall. This allows for great exposure of purchase and sale offers on the floor.
Not everyone here is in a professional or official capacity. Mbumila Lukanga from Mozambique is a young college girl. She has been in Turkey for only six months and is on a scholarship from the Turkish government. Although still learning Turkish, she understands it quite well. “It was a terrible shock at first when I came here,” she said. “But then I learned my way around and met with new friends. Now I like it very much.” She is looking for her countrymen at the business expo and hopes to contribute one day when she graduates from university. “I’d like to pursue a degree in economics,” says Lukanga, remembering her mother’s advice: “It is your time to fly, baby.” She may be right as many here have come for the first time and learned to fly away from the nest to the Turkish hospitality provided by TUSKON.
source: Today’s Zaman
Tags: Africa Turkey trade