The 19th Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) begins tomorrow amid fears of a low turnout of visitors and poor sales, as the country has been hit hard by the ongoing political unrest accompanying the elections.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to formally inaugurate the month-long fair at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital on Saturday.
The annual regular event popularly known as DIFT was scheduled to start from January 1 as usual, but the commerce ministry had to defer it to January 11 following a request from 100 participants in the wake of the political unrest.
Now, starting on January 11, the fair will continue up to February 11.
In the fair, there will have 462 stalls and pavilions where local and foreign manufacturers will display their products to attract buyers.
A total of 32 foreign participants will join the fair to display their products to Bangladeshi people and global buyers who visit the fair.
“We are going to deploy the Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) along with police, RAB and the Ansar battalion to ensure security to the visitors of the fair," AFM Manjur Kadir, secretary of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), told the Dhaka Tribune.
"All the preparations have been done to begin the biggest show to display products to buyers from home and abroad," he added.
“Earlier, we were confused about the turnout of visitors under the previous political turmoil situation but now we are confident about a positive turnout as the political situation is gradually improving,’’ said Manjur Kadir. He, however, hinted that there might have little impact of political unrest on the fair.
“We are worried about the sale volume as the visitor’s turnout may go down due to the political unrest," said Mohammad Delwar Hossain, Senior Manager Marketing of Beximco.
"We are also fearing poor selling this year as the overall financial condition of the country are not healthy," he added.
"The main aim of our participation is just to display and promote our products to customers and not to sale," said Humayun Kabir, Executive Director of Walton.
"But the escalating political turmoil has already been poised as a big problem for us but we have to march forward keeping aside all the odds to achieve our economic goals," he added.
"We are very much optimistic about the presence of the visitors but again the visitor’s turnout might face a setback this year as visitors from outside Dhaka won’t be able to join the fair due to the ongoing blockade being enforced by the opposition political parties," said Kabir.
“We are hopeful about the success of the fair as alike as the previous years as we have already taken all the necessary steps to avert any untoward incidents and to provide full-fledge security to the visitors," said EPB vice chairman, Shubhashish Bose.
As in previous years, Pakistan will join DIFT this year, as there has been no direction from the commerce ministry to ask them to refrain from participating in the fair, said Bose when asked about the demand of the Ganajagran Mancha to put a ban on Pakistani stalls in the trade fair.