Zim hosts Africa Organisation for Standardisation, President’s Forum, Made in Africa Expo

ABOUT THE EVENT

THE main objective of the ARSO President Forum is to create opportunity to review the ARSO Programmes and membership Mobilisation to facilitate the main mandate of ARSO in facilitating Intra-African Trade and economic development and using standardisation a tool for facilitating Africa’s Industrialisation, Transformation and Integration through increased Manufacturing, value addition and innovation.

Specific Objectives:

1. Rally African Stakeholders to appreciate the need for promoting the “Made in Africa” products as a foundation for greater Manufacturing and Industrialisation and as a basis for boosting intra-African trade.

2. Highlight the role of standardisation as a perquisite for Quality and safe products and their acceptance in the local market.

3. Sensitise the local manufacturers, traders, producers and consumers in Zimbabwe on the importance of local products as a base for industrialisation.

4. Highlight the role of ARSO beyond 2017 (ARSO Strategic Forum 2017-2022

5. Review the ARSO Membership and strategies for engaging members and non-members alike for membership Mobilisation. ◆ Non-Active members in terms

of subscriptions — ( Benin, Congo Brazzaville, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Seychelles, Swaziland, South Sudan and Togo). ◆ Non- members — ( Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Gambia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Morocco, Mozambique, Somalia). a. Collaboration with key partners in quality Infrastructure operating on African continent

The Concept of the Made in Africa EXPO.

In Africa, plague of barriers continue to outweigh its potential for industrialization as the manufacturing sector in most countries remain quite small, contributing an average of only around 10% in GDP, even with the capacities of labour and raw materials.

To create awareness on these challenges of industrialization in Africa, ARSO has initiated the Made in Africa Expo to be held alongside the celebrations of the African Day of Standardisation.

The Made in Africa Expo is being held to raise the awareness on the importance of Local Industries and products in Africa’s path to the Industrialisation and integration Agenda.

The Made in Africa EXPO as an important platform which serves the following:

(i) Bring to the fore the products and manufacturing capabilities of African companies and the potential for trade linkages within the continent. This can create help in ensuring alternative and potentially affordable sources of supply and trade instead of extra-African sources. (ii) An opportunity to explore the standards-related barriers that African companies face in specific contexts and how standards and conformity assessment can serve to eliminate the barriers.

(iii) An opportunity for African consumers to assess the quality of African products and influence their preferences to buying Made in Africa products as a priority.

(iv) A platform to assess the possibilities of joint manufacturing and production to foster the economies of scale and specialization among enterprises in Africa.

This can be particularly useful for companies processing or manufacturing products at different levels or producing parts for integration.

(v) Opportunity for market access due to creation of familiarity on standards and techniques used by manufacturers from other African countries.