2016 Asia-IO International Exhibition and Trade Fair photos
The 2016 edition of the Asia – Indian Ocean trade fair took place in the Zone Forello Tanjombato Antananarivo Madagascar from March 17 to March 20th, 2016. The main goal was to attract and to invigorate Asian investments in Madagascar. Locals and international partners have responded quite positively. And a large variety of domains got represented going from individual artists to car seller companies, public ministries, travel agencies, real estate agencies, agricultural companies, forwarding agencies, and so on. Hence, business people, students, investors, curious folks and random visitors all has their fair share at the Asia-IO exposition.
Madagascar is trying to keep up with a world where cooperation with China and other Asian countries is a must. This type of event was intended to be a step towards that objective.
Indonesia was one of the exhibitor countries. The Indonesian stand was fairly large with varieties of commercial and cultural items. Among them, delicious typical food were offered for sampling and for sale. Traditional clothes and jewelries were also displayed. Except for the patterns, the clothes were similar to Malagasy traditional Malabary – a kind of long sleeves shirt-polo that can replace vests and shirts at the same time. Without surprise, the Indonesian people that were present looked like Central Malagasy folks whether it was the hair, the face structure, the skin color, … That is one of the things that confirms that historically, Indonesians are part of Malagasy’s ancestors. They were among the first immigrants that landed on Madagascar’s Eastern Coast.
The SPAT (Société du Port à gestion Autonome de Toamasina – the Toamasina Independent Port Administration Society) was also at the Asia-IO. They presented different improvement projects including the construction of a pile dock, the construction of a building and Ferry Terminal to accommodate paseangers and the construction of a parking lot especially for trucks. Perspective drafts were shown to illustrate what the Port will look like after the projects are completed. It looked quite appealing and modern honestly. Judge for yourself from the below photos.
FTL (Freight Transit Ltd.) had also a stand there. FTL deals with the international transport of goods and offers the convenience of a one–stop shop for all inbound and outbound air and sea cargo movements. They offer premium logistics services to businesses worldwide and they are located in Madagascar, Mauritius, La Réunion and South Africa. And they are friendly, too!
Haojue Holdings, the Chinese leading motorcycle manufacturer, exhibited different types of motorcycle at the Asia-IO. They had touring bikes, scooters, and sport bikes. Haojue Holdings manufactures both Haojue and Suzuki motorcycles, which are popular in domestic market and are exported to over 80 countries and regions around the world. Motorcycles are more and more popular in Madagascar’s big cities. They are easier and quicker to drive in traffic-jams. Plus, they are good for the wallet with less fuel consumption and less maintenance costs.
Other participants include the Chamber of Commerce of Antananarivo, RLI (Radio Lazan’i Iarivo) a local radio station with its “No Comment” magazine, the BFV-SG bank, the UCODIS (importation company in Antananarivo), Premium artisanat a crafts shop, and many more that you could discover in the below pictures.
The few kids on site got their share of fun. Lifesized minions were wondering arround to take pictures and to play with. We have some pictures below.
The Gastronomie Pizza, the largest fast food franchise in Madagascar nowadays was in charge of feeding the hungry participants and visitors. They sell all kind of fast food including pizza, burger, ice cream, gratin, soups, kebabs and the most popular Malagasy dishes. They took their mission very seriously as they must have put their best greeting/Manager guy on site. He certainly knew what client servicing means. Big up for Alex!
