Moses Mwanjrah is the South African country representative for ISSME.
Business owners will have the opportunity to gain international exposure when South Africa hosts a world conference on best practices in promoting small business development.
The conference, organised by the International Society for Small and Medium Enterprises (ISSME), is scheduled to be held in Durban in October next year.
However, Moses Mwanjirah South Africa’s ISSME representative, says several workshops starting this month will be held leading up to the event.
“The workshops will be focusing on a range on themes and it will be national,” says Mwanjirah.
Workshops will be held in Gauteng, Mpumalange, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, with topics such as:
- Public procurement for small businesses
- Market access
- Exporting
- Law and contracts
- Marketing and social media
- Taxation
- Legislation on small businesses
- Access to finance
- Access to information
- Government grants
- Supplier development
- Brics small business exchange programme.
Mwanjirah says business owners interested in attending the workshops can email him (see below) for information on where and when workshops in their area will be held.
“Currently, we’re estimating the cost for attendance of the workshops to be about R200 per workshop. This it to cover venue hire costs,” says Mwanjirah.
He says business owners interested in exhibiting at the conference next year can contact him for more information around costs and the application process.
“ISSME is in the process of updating their website to include the South African office which was launched earlier this year,” says Mwanjirah.
In addition, the ISSME World Small Business Awards will also be held during the four-day conference and there are fifteen awards.
At this stage the application process and criteria for the awards are still being decided upon by the organisation’s head office in India.
However, Mwanjirah says that South African business owners will have to compete with other member countries of ISSME, which include India, for awards and limited exhibition space.
The event, which is expected to draw some 1 000 attendees, can only accommodate 100 business exhibitors.
Mwanjirah says his office is hoping to have both President Jacob Zuma and Minister of Small Business Development Lindiwe Zulu speak at the event.
- Contact Moses Mwanjirah on [email protected] for more information.