GLOBAL EXPO 2018

Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) recently hosted the Global Expo Botswana (GEB) from 30th October - 2nd November 2018 in Gaborone. The Expo was hosted under the theme “Seizing opportunities through networking with global business leaders”.The expo was honoured by the presence of the Vice President Mr. Slumber Tsogwane, the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Ms. Bogolo Kenewendo and also a high-level visit by the Honourable Shri Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, the Vice President of the Republic of India, who did a Keynote Address on the official opening ceremony.Botswana Railways and its Subsidiaries is a constant fixture in the expo. The main objective for participating at this event is to meet with potential customers and sell our services also to possibly attract investors. The expo gave Botswana Railways an opportunity to meet with the business community to share business ideas and discuss other business-related issues with the possibility of striking partnerships such as joint ventures, supply contracts and so on.GEB is a premier business-to-business exposition that could help the country to meet its objectives of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), expansion of domestic investment, the promotion of exports of locally produced goods and services as well as the promotion of trade between Botswana and other countries.This year there were a couple of new initiatives, with the most notable one being the GEB Investment Battlefield. The GEB Investment Battlefield is an initiative that serves as a platform whereby local budding entrepreneurs could pitch their business ideas in order to secure investment finance from a panel of local and international angel investors and venture capitalists in exchange for some shares in the entrepreneurs’ company.Another initiative was the Business Matchmaking Programme which is meant to manage and create targeted one-on-one meetings between Exhibitors and Visitors in order to avail an opportunity for them to discuss business prospects based on their outlined areas of interest.