Cargo Info and UN body join
forces in new venture
A NEW web-based service that provides daily validated trade requests from Africa and the rest of the world is about to be launched on Cargo Info Africa, FTW's sister publication on the internet.
A joint venture between the Trade Information Promotion Service (TIPS), a United Nations Development Programme initiative in South Africa, and Cargo Info, The Trade Connection will capitalise on the more than 1 million hits that the two organisations' websites receive monthly.
Business opportunities on the site will relate to trade demands, joint venture requests, venture capital needs, policy news and business opportunities, and will be provided free of charge to South African exporters. In order to validate the trade requests we make sure that the parties exist and the offer exists. With joint venture requests we get the business plans from the companies involved and once we're happy we publish, says TIPS South Africa's Johan Potgieter.
The services offered will however extend well beyond the matching of trade partners. The Trade Connection takes a holistic approach providing on-line consultancy services relevant to the entire trade cycle, from trade risk and financial services to transport related information.
Each peripheral service will be sponsored by an exclusive service provider - shipping lines on each trade, airlines, roadfreight operators etc. Anyone interested in becoming a sponsor should contact Cargo Info editor Philipp Pfeifer.
An international trade law specialist, Francois Greyling, is already on board. He writes a weekly column on topical issues and undertakes to answer, within 24 hours, any questions posed by readers.
The site also offers a general bulletin board which already receives 400-500 entries daily.
Tips is the largest technological and trade information network of developing countries. Its network comprises 43 national bureaux in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Eastern and Central Europe, connected online through the latest communications technology.
It was established in 1986 as an international network with the objective of promoting the exchange of technological and trade information between new and established business partners around the globe.
This new facility adds further clout to Cargo Info's already comprehensive electronic freight site.
To visit the Trade Connection portal access any of the following web sites: www.africatrade.co.za; cargoinfo.co.za; ftnow.co.za; or tips.co.za
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