The Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition (the DTIC) in partnership with Gauteng Growth Development Agency (GGDA), and Constitution Hill hosted Gauteng businesses intending to enter the export industry. The weeklong training took place in February 2021 at Constitution Hill where attendees were introduced to the Global Exporter Passport Programme (GEPP). The GEPP is run by the Department of Trade and industry (the DTIC) to provide training to small, medium, and large enterprises that wish to expand their market reach outside of our borders. The programme is a key component of the National Exporter Development Programme (NEDP), which is a pillar of the Integrated National Export Strategy (INES). It aims to prepare companies to be export-ready and sustainable in export markets.
The training involves frequent export-readiness assessments of participants to ensure the provision of appropriate interventions. The actual training is done in four phases, which include both formal and informal workshops. At the end of the intensive training, SMMEs were able to understand the export cycle, processes, and logistics; develop an export marketing plan; understand specific export markets that they would like to participate in and understand the current issues in the export industry and how to navigate them. One of the companies who received training stated that “the training exceeded their expectations and helped broaden their knowledge where export requirement and regulations are concerned.” They also appreciated the fact that the training included some marketing traits that they can adopt in the export strategies.