Made in Ghana vehicle exhibited in Holland

The Dutch Media has held a first major Festival in Holland to celebrate the prototype vehicle dubbed: SMATI Turtle 1, Designed and manufactured by a team of artisans of Suame Magazine from metal scraps under the Suame Magazine Automatics Technical Institute (SMATI), A model technical institutional establishment unit under the Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organization (SMIDO).

The exhibition of the SMATI Turtle to the Dutch Media was held at Paradiso, which is the National centre for pop music, theater, journalism and debate, a version of Ghana’s National Theatre, was considered a major national platform to generate the Dutch public and business interest in the model vehicle.

According to the consultant to SMIDO, Mr. Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, the Festival is the first of the series of events outlined by the Dutch media and other international media fraternity to promote Suame Magazine and SMATI Turtle as a Twin-Brand of African technological ingenuity, and an emerging African brand in the global technological industry. The Festival was organized by the Dutch media following the interest shown by the Dutch Government in the project to court international Governments and Investment interest for intervention in Suame Magazine which the Dutch media describes as an oasis of technological creativity whose development could set the stage for Africa’s industrialization .

According to Mr.Azongo, information reaching him from the Dutch partners’ to the project, Aarschapp foundation indicates that the first festival at Paradiso to celebrate the Ghana’s Model Vehicle was a huge success as all the Dutch media gathered at the centre to formally unveil the vehicle for the viewing public.

The Dutch partners to the Project who are largely international media group poised to promote the engineering talents of Suame Magazine for Global recognition were hosted and given LIVE coverage on the biggest Dutch National TV station to reach one million audience.

When asked why the huge enthusiasm by the West in this African evolving automobile vehicular model, when they have seen what could be described as the ‘best’ models against the backdrop that Ghanaians do not seem to embrace this project in equal terms?. Azongo said, the Europeans are stunned by the creative engineering potential the model car symbolizes, and not the mere state of the Car. They are stunned by the concept behind the model and the future prospects of the brand, and not its immediate outlook. According to Azongo, the leader of the Dutch team, Melles Smets, said the general impression by the media and the Dutch public about the SMATI Turtle emanates from the fact that “the idea of bringing dead vehicular parts back to life in a captivating design measured against the African rugged terrain, the agrarian economic demands and security, and built using bare hands within a period of two months, without any sophisticated vehicular manufacturing equipment is a stunning height of engineering creativity compares with the creative European technological heights that gave birth to the current automobile brands.

According to Azongo, news papers in Belgium have published the SMATI Turtle 1 in the Belgium newspapers and Denmark and German media are also set to carry the news on SMATI Turtle.

In another development, the climax of the exhibition would be staged at the biggest car-fare in the Netherlands called the Auto-salon, where all the big automobile brands present their concept vehicles for future production. The stand for this exhibition attracts a fee of 20,000.00 euro’s.

According to Mr.Azongo, Mr. Albert Cophie, the Executive Secretary of SMIDO and leader of the Engineering team that designed and built the Vehicle would be in Holland to present the vehicle at the Auto-salon centre. Mr. Albert Cophie would be accompanied by a Ghanaian Journalists to report from the Netherlands.

The President of SMIDO, Mr. Sarpong Boateng is hopeful that this trip shall mark an important turning point in the quest to set the pace for Ghana’s industrialization and called for Ghanaians to offer the needed support for SMIDO in this challenging phase to unveil a model vehicle we could claim as our own.