The Inquirer (Monrovia)
Melissa Chea-Annan
17 March 2008
Ouagadougou — The Director of Trade and Customs of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Abdou Ah disclosed over the week-end that Liberia stands a chance to host the 7th ECOWAS Trade Fair if the country makes a request to host the event.
Director Ah who spoke to The INQUIRER in an exclusive interview in Ouagadougou at the premises of SIAO, where the event was held pointed out that the hosting of ECOWAS Trade Fair is not a one man's thing; instead it involves the work of all member states.
According to him, even if Liberia doesn't have a site, in terms of structures to host the event, all the Liberian leader needs to do is to express the desire in the shortest possible time to host the event and ECOWAS partners will build and develop several pavilions at an area that would be identified by the country (Liberia) to host the event.
He further stated that if Liberia appeals for the 7th Trade Fair, it would be in the interest of the country as many investors and visitors would rush to the country to boost the economy of that country. Additionally, the building of the Trade Site would also be a part of the development process as the site would also be used for future programs.
The ECOWAS Trade and Custom Director who explained that the trade fair is held every two years disclosed that Cote d'Ivoire has already put in a request to host the 6th ECOWAS Trade Fair in 2010.
He further stated that the two-year period is given to enable host countries better prepare for the next event. He said the forum is intended to enable the 15 ECOWAS Member States exhibit all of their products, including traditional outfits and animal husbandry among others that were produced in those countries and to tell the rest of the world that their products are indeed suitable for exportation to other parts of the world.
Mr. Ah expressed satisfaction over the manner in which the Trade Fair was held and rated the event as 'successful'. He also praised the organizers for the well-planned program, which drew the attention of several visitors.
He again praised the quality of goods that were exhibited at the trade fair, and expressed the hope that the next trade fair would be better than the previous one.
Giving a brief statistics of the Trade Fair at a press briefing, Mr. Ah disclosed that at the Trade Fair, about 427 stands were constructed and occupied by 550 distributors. He said the least sum of 56,000,000 Franc was generated daily and about 2,600 persons registered at the entrance on a daily basis to either purchase or just to glance at the goods and products. He also added that at the Fair, 4,700 persons contacted them to form part of the next trade fair, while the entire event received over 40,000 visitors.
Mr. Ah stated that although some countries, including Liberia didn't attend the Fair at all, but he was pleased that 11 of the ECOWAS countries were in attendance. "I am sure that those who didn't attend this Trade Fair would be in attendance at the next Fair in Abidjan 2010," he added.
The 5th ECOWAS Trade Fair was witnessed by several of ECOWAS dignitaries, including the President of the Commission, Dr. Mohamed Chambas; the Vice Chairman, Jean de Dieu Somda; the current Chairman of ECOWAS and President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Campaoré, among others.
They were all amazed by the richness of the exhibited products and expressed satisfaction over the products and boasted that West Africa and Africa at large has a lot to offer and so all Africans should be proud of these products.
After visiting all of the stands occupied by the 11 countries, in separate statements, they said they were convinced that the promotion of products within the Community was an important challenge and that they were also particularly happy about the youth and women participation.
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