Micro Finance Trade Fair 2014 closes

Thousands of people in Port Vila and surrounding communities heeded the appeal from the Mayor of the Vanuatu capitol, Ulrich Sumptoh, and flocked to the 3-day Micro Finance Trade Fair at the Seafront Promenade in Port Vila which closed Saturday night.

Lord Mayor Sumptoh had appealed to citizens of Port Vila and people from surrounding villages to make use of the opportunity of the trade fair and to learn how micro credit and small and micro enterprises can help them.

“Make use of this event to understand ways to make money and ways to save money from micro credit providers who will be present during the fair. The finance providers have lots of interesting information and services that can assist the people of Port Vila and those from other islands residing with us this time,” Mayor Sumptoh had made the call at the start of the trade fair.

He said micro finance played an important service for small and micro businesses in providing much benefit through business startup and development, employment, education, community development, and enabling prosperity for the people.

This year’s Micro Finance Trade Fair, the fourth annual event since its beginning in 2011, brought together small, micro, medium and corporate indigenous ni-Vanuatu businesses and finance producers in Port Vila. Some success stories in business from a number of islands in the country were also brought in to share information on their experiences.

The 3-day activity-packed event closed at midnight Saturday with live entertainment from several string and pop bands. One of them – the popular Stan and the Earth Force, used the 2011 Trade Fair as the springboard to project itself to Vanuatu, regional and international recognition it enjoys today.