The 27th Dhaka International Trade Fair-2023 ended on Tuesday with businesses receiving export orders worth about $30.38 million (about Tk 300 crore) while goods worth Tk 100 crore were sold in the month-long exhibition at the Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Centre at Purbachal in Dhaka.

A total of 47 businesses received awards in several categories like best pavilion and stalls for their performance in the event.

Textiles and jute minister Golam Dastagir Gazi attended as chief guest and distributed the awards among the businesses at the closing ceremony of the month-long event.

Commerce minister Tipu Munshi and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry senior vice-president Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu attended as special guests at the closing ceremony of the country’s largest international trade fair on the BBCFEC premises.

EPB vice-chairman AHM Ahsan delivered the welcome speech.

He said, ‘The trade fair this year received satisfactory response from visitors and traders.’

Participation of traders was 37 per cent higher than the previous trade fair and more than 1 lakh visitors visited the fair every day, he said.

The event played a significant role in promoting local industrial products to the world, said Tipu Munshi.

Diversification of the products was also remarkable in the fair, he said.

Businesses received export orders of Tk 300 crore which indicate the success of the fair despite the ongoing global economic crisis, he said.

The government has set export target of $67 billion for the current financial year and hopefully we will achieve the target, he said.

He also urged the businesses to work together to promote the export basket of the country on global markets.

Golam Dastagir Gazi said, ‘The government has been working to promote the businesses for the interest of the national economy.’

Most of the businesses have been able to recover from the Covid impact as the government offered cash incentive support timely, he said.

The trade fair creates a bridge between local and international businesses, he said.

The government has been working on developing transport communication system across the country and it will add a new chapter to the country’s trade development in coming days, he added.

Observing this year’s visitors’ response, he urged the government to extend the area of the trade fair venue so that the venue can host more visitors in coming days, he said.

Dastagir said, ‘Gradually, infrastructure and transport sectors have developed which would help to promote our export basket.’

The trade fair was successful in attracting a huge crowd, he said.

Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu said, ‘The new DITF venue is a permanent venue. Our economy in the past 10 years has grown.’

The government needs to invest more to develop the venue so that the coming years fair would be arranged more dynamically as the venue has a shortage of capacity, he said.

‘We have to stress on more value-added products and also focus on skill development to achieve the export target of $300 billion by 2040,’ he added.

There were about 351 local and foreign stalls, pavilions and mini pavilions in the fair, up from the previous year’s tally of 225.

Besides, some 17 organisations from 10 countries, including Singapore, Indonesia, Korea and India also took part in the fair.

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