THE metro’s Trade and Investment Conference 2005 has been declared a success, and will be repeated again in 2007.

This was the word yesterday from Belu Mabandla, the metro’s trade and investment manager, who was responsible for organising this event.

“We were pitched at a very high level and the quality of the speakers, the messages and the theme were very good,” she said.

“We are going to be doing a lot of following up in the next year and repeat it again in 2007.”

She said a team had been established to assess responses from delegates and exhibitors in order to gain insight into potential opportunities. A report would be compiled from this process and is expected to be completed by next week.

Mabandla said she was initially concerned at what appeared to be a low turnout, but attributed this to the size of the venue that dwarfed numbers. “Given that our target was 200, I was not too uncomfortable,” she said of a head count of around 150.

“The parallel sessions were more focused, and the average was about 40 per session, which was not too far off the mark, as the target was 50.”

She felt the quality of the delegates was more important than focusing purely on the numbers.

“For us, this was a new-generation platform because the unit of trade and investment is new, so we are going to start working on those new contacts that were established.

“I think there is more to come in the future in terms of deals to be made. I think it was a good platform.”

Johann Dreyer, director of Madiba Bay Leisure World, commended the metro for organising the event.

“For the first year, the metro did a fantastic job,” he said. “I think it is something one has to work on over a number of years. I don’t think it is something you can start off with a bang in the first year.

“What is important is the intention to attract business to the area, and I think the metro is doing a fantastic job in that respect.”

He said it had proved to be a useful networking opportunity within the local market and elicited a number of positive inquiries.

“We met a couple of international investors who expressed an interest in investing in the overall project,” he said.

Dreyer also supported the need to continue with such investment promotion activities and to host such an event again in the future.

It was felt that the real measure of the success of the conference would be deals and investments committed to paper. It was still too early to quantify these successes, but they should hopefully start bearing fruit within a reasonable period of time.

Physical exposure to projects and developments was another element of the conference, and delegates are visiting a number of sites today to gain that first-hand experience.

The site visits include the Coega IDZ, Addo Elephant Park, the NMB Logistics Park and motor manufacturers VWSA and GMSA.