Promote 2017: Veritable Investment Trigger

The 6th International Exhibition for Enterprises, SMEs and Partnership, PROMOTE is now history. It will only remain fresh in the mind if its ramifications include a considerable degree of post exhibition investment. In effect, the main purpose of organising a trade fair of this magnitude with the participation of several hundreds of companies from across the globe is to enhance investment and boost competition. The whole concept of PROMOTE takes into consideration the whole gamut of factors that act as incentives to investment. The massive participation of foreign companies and to a certain degree local ones tells of the urge to see how clear the investment ground is and how possible further investment could be undertaken. The presence of about 600 enterprises of the 800 programmed is a significant milestone not only because they were at the exhibition ground on the hills of the Conference Centres but because they made contacts, shared experiences and laid groundwork for cooperation and possible investment.
The International Exhibition for Enterprises, SMEs and Partnership was occasion for companies with serious appetite for investment to make an assessment of the factors that can ease investment in Cameroon. Economists have always had their eyes on a number of factors that can serve as incentives for investors. These include: wage rates, labour skills, tax rates, transport and infrastructure, size of the economy and potential for growth, political stability and property rights, availability of commodities, exchange rate, legal system and access to free trade areas among others. These factors are certainly what foreign partners came to look for. The conferences organised at the trade fair and the various exchange of views were occasions to size up issues and probably clear the way for decision making. Almost all the sectors of the economy were represented at the fair and one could easily observe the direction the wind of interest was taking. Agroindustry, water and energy, construction, cosmetics, communication, tourism and many others were conspicuous.
Like many other trade shows, PROMOTE presented a range of valuable opportunities for companies that participated, including meeting potential customers, finding new and better ways of doing business and building a more impressive reputation within an industry. Many companies it should be underscored rely on trade shows like this one to find opportunities to grow their customer list, establish partnerships, learn ways to improve operations and establish themselves as industry th...