{"id":35114,"date":"2026-05-22T09:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=35114"},"modified":"2026-05-22T09:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:43:11","slug":"malawi-hosts-regional-trade-expo","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/malawi-hosts-regional-trade-expo\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi hosts regional trade expo"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Business leaders and investors from Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community have gathered in Malawi for the 36th International Trade Fair, which opened on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The event is aimed at showcasing products and boosting investment links between local companies and regional blocs. Opening the fair, Malawi&#8217;s Trade, Tourism and Industry Minister, Symon Itaye, said the country is positioning its businesses to fully benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Malawi is hosting the 36th International Trade Fair at a critical time, as the government intensifies efforts to leverage intra-African trade for economic development.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Over the next seven days, about 200 exhibitors will showcase various products, forge business linkages, and seal trade deals.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Guest of Honor, Minister of Trade, Tourism, and Industry Symon Itaye, underscored the vital role Small and Medium Enterprises and cooperatives play in driving industrialization and generating foreign exchange.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">He also hailed the Malawi Revenue Authority&#8217;s new Electronic Invoicing System as a gamechanger.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Channel Africa&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":35115,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-35114","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"International Trade Fair","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35116,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35114\/revisions\/35116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}