Creato to win IPU conference bid

Local event management firm Creato is likely to get the job of organising the upcoming Inter Parliamentary Union conference in Dhaka. Ministry of Commerce sent a proposal to the cabinet committee on public purchase in this regard, officials said. The proposal is likely to be placed before the cabinet committee on public purchase on March 28. According to the proposal, the cost of event management of the IPU conference will be Tk7 crore. The local event management firm will build infrastructure and stalls at the conference venue - Bangabandhu International Conference Centre at the cost of Tk5.97 crore. The conference will be held on April 1-5. Earlier, the Grey Advertising Bangladesh Ltd quoted a Tk3 crore plan for managing the event, but Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed did not like the Grey’s presentation. The minister, however, called off the plan, saying more private firms may be hired to arrange the international conference. The budget for the event could also be raised to Tk30 crore, he added. A total of 1,500 representatives from 171 IPU member countries are expected to participate in the event. About the security, DMP Commissioner Md Asaduzzaman Mia recently said uniformed and plainclothes security personnel will be deployed in and around the conference venue, hotels where the foreign guests would reside, and some other important places in the city. “The whole city will be covered with tight security as the delegates will start arriving in the country from March 24.” On April 28 last year, a formal agreement was signed between the IPU and the Bangladesh parliament on convening the 136th IPU assembly in Dhaka. Parliament Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong signed the deal at River Room of the UK House of Lords. Bangladesh got IPU membership in 1972. Saber Hossain Chowdhury got elected as 28th president of IPU in 2014 and has since been serving the 125-year-old organisation established in 1889 as president.