Africa’s industrial market is ripe for exploration by technology businesses in the oil, gas and petroleum, energy, water and manufacturing sectors, says Exhibition Management Services (EMS) MD John Thomson.

EMS is organising the South African Industry & Technology Fair (Indutec) – a new industry and technology expo taking place at the Gallagher Convention Centre, in Midrand, from May 14 to 16.

The expo will highlight that, while economies and markets stagnate worldwide, Africa is on the rise through modernisation and development into a major market.
“Africa is experiencing an average growth rate of 5.25%, while some of its economies are growing at 10% or more a year; so, worldwide interest in doing business in Africa is at an all-time high and the expo is set to boost economic growth on the continent,” says Thomson.

Indutec’s ten events cover the industrial, technology and manufacturing sectors, which are Pumps, Valves & Pipes Africa, Watertec Africa, Petro.t.ex Africa, Energex Africa, Intermac Africa (machinery), Manutec Africa (manufacturing), Smart Automation Africa (process automation), Afriplast Expo (plastics), Industrial Greentec Africa (sustainable technology) and Empowertec Africa (small business).

Thomson explains that Africa has a rapidly growing middle-class consumer population that will need water, fuel and energy. Indutec aims to showcase technologies and create a platform for companies to benefit from the growing markets.
Africa’s water-related technology market is expected to grow to $700-million, its manufacturing market to $200-billion and its energy sector market to $800-billion, all by 2020. These figures are small, com- pared with the market for oil and gas tech- nologies, which is expected to grow to $3.6-trillion by 2020.
Government’s National Development Programme (NDP) has set aside R300-million for the improvement of the energy sector, R4.7-billion to install five-million solar water heaters by 2020 and 1 200 MW of renewable energy will be sourced from independent power producers in the private sector.

“There are lucrative opportunities for companies in these fields and Indutec will enable them to take advantage of the NDP, the growing markets and the economies,” says Thomson.

For enquiries regarding the expo, go to www.exhibitionsafrica.com.