Making “new contacts” and “brand positioning” in the Mozambican market are the main reasons for companies to take part in the Maputo International Fair (Facim), which is in its 49th edition this year, businesspeople told Macauhub.

Three days from the end of Mozambique’s biggest business fair, which has been on since Monday on the outskirts of the Mozambican capital, the international companies taking part in the fair are “satisfied” with the results so far, particularly in terms of the number of new contacts they have made.

“It has been very important for us to learn (about the market) and have been able to meet a lot of people and publicise the brand,” Henrique Lehrfeld, the managing director of the Portuguese subsidiary of door company Hörmann, told Macauhub. It is the first time the company has taken part in the fair.

According to the Institute for Export Promotion (Ipex), which is responsible for organising Facim, 480 companies are taking part in the event from 20 countries and territories.

As well as promoting business deals in the construction and industrial sector, which appear to have the largest number of international exhibitors, the fair also involves, to a smaller degree, companies that work in the information technology (IT) sector, such as Portuguese company Roff.

João Martins, the company’s marketing director, said that Roff was “setting up a Mozambican company,” and thus taking part in Facim was essential for the brand’s positioning in the country.

“It is a market with excellent prospects, where we already have some customers, and it makes sense to have a physical presence (at the fair), to state that we are here, just as we are in Angola, because the market values that choice,” he said.

As well as Portugal, which as with previous editions of the fair has its own pavilion, and this year has pharmaceutical companies attending, other countries have a large number of companies at the fair, including Germany, South Africa, Brazil, Italy and Turkey.

The 49th edition of Facim, due to end on 1 September, also involves companies from Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Swaziland, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, China, Argentina, Sweden, Poland and Macau. (macauhub)