Port Elizabeth will be the focus of international companies, foreign trade delegations and venture capitalists later this year when the city hosts the Small Business Overdrive exhibition.
The exhibition, the second hosted by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality, comes amid wide national interest in the Coega Industrial Development Zone that is under construction north-east of the city.
The first ship is expected to dock at the Port of Ngqura, the R2,5-billion deep-water port at Coega, in September next year.
The small business expo from October 23 to 25 will feature about 200 exhibition stands, representing the tourism and hospitality industries, the automotive, manufacturing, agriculture, information technology and communications, construction and engineering sectors, banking and financial services, as well as small and medium enterprise support services.
In addition to the foreign visitors, South African big business and government department representatives are also expected to visit the conference. The expo would showcase developmental and established SMMEs, providers of commercial products and services and match them with big business, government departments and each other, exhibition project leader Thabo Selai said in a statement.
”We are taking advantage of the huge interest in our region ahead of the Coega boom,” the metropole’s executive mayor Nceba Faku said.
The exhibition will run concurrently with the African Renaissance Investor Conference in Port Elizabeth from October 22 to 24. – Sapa