DR Congo to host VACONGHA 2024 business fair and exhibition
The second edition of the Vanuatu, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana (VACONGHA) Global Business Fair and Exhibition will take place in Kinshasa next year, the organisers have announced.
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The VACONGHA fair, which is being organised by the Vanuatu Trade Commission in Ghana in collaboration with the Government of DR Congo is aimed at providing a unique and valuable platform for businesses to access an integrated African market of over 1.3 billion people.
The four-day event will be a platform for sharing trade and investment, market information, enable buyers, sellers, investors and countries to meet, discuss, initiate partnership and strategic alliances.
Additionally, the fair is meant to promote collaboration through innovation and technology, investment in infrastructure while improving the quality of products to enable African countries position themselves as global competitors and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the AfCFTA.
The first edition was held in August this year at the National Theatre in Accra, Ghana which saw participants, exhibitors, traditional rulers and businesses from West Africa and other parts of the world coming together to foster trade and partnership among themselves.
VACONGHA 2024 will comprise key components such as trade exhibition, trade and investment forum, creative Africa nexus, Africa automotive show, youth start-up programmes, diaspora day as well as VACONGHA virtual which is a platform to showcase goods, services and investment opportunities on an interactive online platform.
As part of preparations for the fair, the Vanuatu Trade Commissioner to Ghana, H E Ambassador Prof. Hugh Aryee and Business Development and Trade Promotion Manager, Mr. Asiwome Kwame Dzineku were in in Kinshasa in October to interact with officials in the DR Congo ahead of the event.
Ambassador Prof. Hugh Aryee told the Daily Graphic last Friday that the outcome of the DR Congo meeting was to rebrand VACONGHA to include other countries therefore, “VACONGHA Plus” was coined to maintain the names of the three founding countries.
Ambassador Aryee explained further that other countries that intended to join the VACONGHA would become “Plus” as well as be founding partners to the event which was meant to be the catalyst towards fostering deeper trade globally.
Consequently, a team from the Vanuatu Trade Commission in Ghana led by Ambassador Aryee, had paid courtesy call on various high commissions and embassies in Ghana and sold the VACONGHA idea to them as well as invited their countries to participate in the fair.
“So far we have been to the Danish Embassy, Chinese Embassy, Australia High Commission and the Sweden Embassy and the response has been good. We are looking forward to having a successful event in DR Congo next year,” he said.
“We have also visited and paid homage to some traditional rulers in connection with the fair and they include the Paramount Chief of Aflao Traditional Area and the Awoamefia of Anlo.