Compared to the last time, this year’s Dhaka International Trade Fair received more export orders; at the same time, sales were also higher than the last time.
It was announced at the closing ceremony of the trade fair on Tuesday that export orders worth about $356 million were received at this year’s fair, which is approximately Tk 3.92 billion in Bangladeshi currency.
The export orders received this year are about 17.25 percent higher than last year.
Last year, export orders worth about Tk 3 billion were received at the trade fair. It was announced at the ceremony that products worth about Tk 1.5 billion were sold at this year’s fair. Last time, products worth Tk 1 billion were sold.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the 28th session of the trade fair on Jan 21 at the multi-purpose hall of the Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Center in Purbachal.
The chief guest at the closing ceremony of the fair on Tuesday was the State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu.
At the ceremony, he said, “We have adopted a special plan. We want to bring up at least 68,000 skilled artisans and entrepreneurs from 68,000 villages, one product from one village. With ten more people each, we can create more than 600,000 new entrepreneurs and workers.”
“In this way, the government has set a goal to bring up skilled artisans based on products in the country over the next year.”
The state minister mentioned that work will start quickly towards this goal, saying, “This development programme for handicrafts will be conducted with the cooperation of other ministries.
He announced that from next year, a separate pavilion will be set up at the trade fair for handicrafts, stating, “Products produced from handicrafts across Bangladesh will come here in this pavilion.”
Speaking of plans to initiate the export of domestically produced handicrafts, State Minister Titu added: “Not just local fairs, we want to exhibit at international fairs as well.
“For the embassies abroad, we will arrange get-togethers for our people living abroad, even if on a smaller scale, similar to the Boishakhi fairs. Through this arrangement, we will also set up the system for exporting the products abroad.”
The event was chaired by Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce Tapan Kanti Ghosh, with FBCCI President Mahbubul Alam as special guest.