BITC wins big at Regional Exporters Awards
A raft of measures provided to handhold exporters
Botswana Investment and Trade Centre scooped 2nd position at the second edition of the Southern Africa Regional Exporters Awards held at the Boardwalk Convention Centre, Gqeberha, Eastern Cape South Africa.
Nine ( 9) countries - Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia – participated in the competition for Trade Promotion Service Provider of the Year.
BITC clarified that the awards recognise outstanding performance and noteworthy efforts of Trade Service Providers in supporting firms to successfully export.
In an interview with this publication, Director, Brand Management at BITC, Thuso Palai expounded on the range of services that BITC offers local manufacturing and service companies to access export markets.
He said these include export advisory services, trade show attendance, buyer/ seller missions and provision of market intelligence.
BITC assists companies with export potential to acquire quality management systems relevant to their sectors.
The Quality Management System Certification provides assurance to clients that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements.
There is also the Fairtrade Certification, which Palai says is a market- driven certification that promotes responsible business, conscious consumerism, and shared value to eliminate poverty and enable sustainable development for businesses, workers, their families, and communities around the world.
“When products are Fairtrade Certified it means that they were produced in accordance with Fairtrade International’s rigorous environmental, economic and social standards and this enables companies to fetch a premium price,” Palai said.
BITC also assists companies to develop Export Marketing Plans to guide efforts to successfully participate in export markets.
Palai said that the BITC has also been collaborating with the University of Botswana to offer exporter development short courses. The training programme covers modules in export marketing, export financing and export logistics.
He said the Senior Expert Services ( Germany) provides tailormade interventions to companies enrolled in the Botswana Exporter Development Programme. The interventions offered to local SMMEs so far include support in product development and re- engineering of production processes.
Palai added that BITC actively supports local companies to list on the United Nations ( UN) Procurement System. He said that the supply of products to the UN is seen as step towards participating in export markets.
According to BITC, the Southern Africa Regional Exporters Awards is a collaboration between the ECDC and the U. S. Government, through the USAID Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub ( USAID TradeHub).
The USAID TradeHub engages with all nine participating countries to increase sustainable growth, export competitiveness, and trade between these countries and with the United States.
Asked about the significance of the award to his organisation and how it will assist them going forward, Palai said that the award recognises the hard work and achievements that team BITC has realised in executing its mandate.
“It also boosts our employees’ morale as it recognises their contribution to Botswana’s economy. Furthermore, we believe the award will also attract new clients to choose to utilise our services,” he said.