Asha Visits Home
Asha boarded the plane back to Europe after three weeks in her home country. The first two weeks had been annual leave, visiting her family.
The highlight of the third week was her meeting with the trade minister. He had accepted her invitation to lead a business delegation to the European commodities trade fair and was keen to finalize the arrangements. He asked about opportunities in the European market for vegetable oil. The farmers lobby, he explained, was important politically.
Fortunately, Asha had already done some research and was able to tell the minister that the European market was growing and consumers were strongly driven by the desire for oils with health benefits. She had already made some initial approaches to European supermarket chains and promised to follow up. The minister was encouraged, and wanted a deal ready for him to sign during his visit.
Asha had been invited to visit the Textiles Industry Association to discuss a report she had prepared for them on the European market. She talked them through the findings and they pencilled in a date for a market visit in the next year. The association had identified Europe as the top priority for their business plan. They were excited by the opportunities she could provide.
Regarding inward investment, Asha had attended the opening of the new African office of the European digital technology company that she had worked with a few months back. The CEO had been very impressed with the pitch he had received from Asha’s inward investment agency and had struck up a good working relationship with Asha. After two exploratory visits to Africa, he had decided to open a small regional office, initially employing six local graduates. His expansion plans were ambitious and Asha was happy that she had been able to contribute.
On her last day, Asha had flown to her country’s second city. Fortunately, the mayor had dropped his plans for a city twinning agreement and was happy to lead a purely commercial delegation to Europe. Asha had been able to finalize dates, and her visit focused on discussing commercial opportunities with the local chamber of commerce, which would take the lead in recruiting the delegation.
It was so much easier to get things agreed face to face. Asha felt it had been a really worthwhile use of her time. Now she had some big events to prepare for.
Key Points
Visits home provide a great opportunity for trade representatives to promote the host market and deepen their network of home contacts.
It is practical and cost effective to combine such visits with annual leave or conferences. Some countries organize annual meetings of trade representatives to coincide with annual leave. These offer excellent networking opportunities.
Discussions can focus on proposals for trade missions, trade fairs and exhibitions, ministerial visits, and market visits by companies and associations.
Plan the visit to cover different parts of the home country, not only the capital city.
Timing is important to avoid missing key host country events.
Checklist: Home country visits
Meet as many partners as possible.
Participate in global conferences of home country trade representatives.
Meet exporters, particularly those with an interest in the host market.
Tap into the business planning and resource allocation process. Is it possible to time the visit to outline personally the case for more resources in the host market?
Coincide with a mission or trade fair recruitment meeting to speak about the opportunities in the market, and persuade companies to sign up for the mission.
Meet any high-level representative who will be visiting the market soon.
Meet any new staff who may be going to work in the host country.
Visit the host country’s embassy in the home country; swap notes on forthcoming visits of high-level persons in both countries; look for opportunities for joint initiatives.
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Mission Accomplished
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