SMEs to Attend Canton Fair in China

SOME HUNDRED owners of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), receiving banking products and services solutions from Barclays Bank of Ghana Limited would this month meet leading operators of China's private sector and some officials of state bodies charged with the responsibility to facilitate private sector participation in China's economy.

The owners, who are also members of the Barclays Local Business Club (BLBC), would leave Ghana next week in two batches to partake in the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, which is said to be one of the largest fairs in the world.

This is to offer the SME's an opportunity to meet a large number of suppliers, manufacturers, investors and overseas buyers who would participate in the fair with the display of about 150,000 different products.

The two-week trip, which is the second organized by Barclays for some of its BLBC members is also expected to expose the SMEs to first-hand business conduct and practice in the context of another culture, from which they would learn best practices.

Briefing the media on the trip in Accra yesterday, the head of local business of the bank, Silvia Yamson Nkansah noted that the trip was aimed at providing their customers the opportunity to meet directly with suppliers for their various products and promote networking among them and the international community.

She said the trip would help their customers gain ideas that would help grow their businesses, saying, "MSEs are major employers in the country and we expect that they will implement what they will learn from this trip to grow their businesses and create more employment and better economic development in our country."

According to her, those who would be travelling to China along with some staff of the bank included general traders, among others. About 20% of them are manufacturers, who would learn different techniques and processes of international standards to improve their internal processes to develop the private sector.

She indicated that, "Barclays want to support the development and growth of our SMEs and the country because this is the engine of growth today in Ghana."

She explained that they had chosen Asia because "we need to go where we are assured of getting the best deal and, right now, it looks like the best deals are coming out of Asia and we need our customers to be positioned in the best place where they can get the maximum return for their financial investment."

Also, the Business Development Manager, SME banking, Mr. Nii Amankrah Tetteh indicated that the trip would be a successful one since the bank had taken lessons from their first trip to Dubai, which presented some challenges. He said their customers were going to benefit a great deal from the Canton Fair.

He pointed out that though the customers would pay for all expenses, Barclays was setting the stage for them to achieve what they could not have achieved individually, saying, "we are very interested that our clients get what they need to improve their businesses."

As to whether the bank was not trying to encourage more imports into the country that was already flooded with imports, he explained that presently the country was still a net importer, while most of their clients were being crushed by many middlemen.

For this reason, he said Barclays wanted to help their customers meet directly with suppliers to increase their margins and then take initiatives to diversify and begin to export their products.

He added that the motive was not just to allow their customers import through direct contacts but also to enable the manufacturers involved to look at ways to improve their local business, identify sophisticated equipment and machinery, which are not available here, build partnerships as well as expand into new areas among many other opportunities.

Link to allAfrica.com: Ghana: SMEs to Attend Canton Fair in China (Page 1 of 1)