Maputo — The Mozambican government announced on Tuesday that this year’s edition of the Maputo Trade Fair (Facim) will be virtual.
Last year, for the first time in its history, Facim was simply cancelled, in order to avoid the spread of the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
The government spokesperson, Deputy Justice Minister Filimao Suaze, announced that Facim-2021, the 56th edition of the Fair, will be held from 30 August to 5 September, but in a virtual format.
Suaze added that, if the statistics show a significant reduction in Covid-19 infections, “then there could be a mixture, a fair that could be happening virtually, but which could also incorporate a component of a physical fair”.
He said there have been recent examples of successful virtual fairs, as in the cases of China and Rwanda.
“We want to follow this trend which seeks to combine the need for maintaining these commercial fairs, while recognising that this moment of pandemic imposes new forms of doing the same things”, Suaze said.
He claimed that in the virtual mechanism it is possible to undertake the same activities which normally occur in physical fairs where interactions are face-to-face. Products would still be on display, and it would be possible to establish partnerships and to sign contracts remotely.
“Previous expeiences in other parts of the world show that it is possible to hold these fairs with great success, and even with a reduction in some costs”. Suaze declared.