Finally, the 26th edition of the Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF), Bangladesh’s most important annual commercial and trade event, started on January 1, 2022, at a massive new Chinese-built venue. It will take place for one month at the Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Center (BBCFEC) in Purbachal, Bangladesh, on the outskirts of Dhaka.
It’s the most significant trade Fair in Bangladesh that held every year from the first week of January. The Export Promotion Bureau organizes it in collaboration with Bangladesh’s Ministry of Commerce. Since its inception on December 1, 1995, DITF has been held annually at Sher-E-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka, on the west side of the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. Unfortunately, the fair was not established for the last few years due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. But now, the fair will be held at the Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Centre in the capital’s Purbachal neighborhood. In addition to Bangladeshi firms, many companies worldwide participate yearly.
From now, the International Trade Fair will be held every year in the same location. Permanent infrastructure has been built on 20 acres of land in Sector 4, Purbachal. On October 17, 2017, China State Construction Engineering Corporation began construction on the exhibition center. The project was completed on November 30, 2020. The project costs Tk 7.73 billion, with the Chinese grant fund contributing Tk 5.2 billion. The government has spent Tk 2.31 billion on this project, with the EPB contributing Tk 212.7 million. According to the Ministry of Commerce, the exhibition center’s name will be changed to ‘Bangabandhu Bangladesh – China Friendship Exhibition Centre’ in the future. And the name has been fixed finally.
The fair has country-specific foreign sections and over 700 mini-stalls, general stalls, premium stalls, mini-pavilions, and mega-pavilions. The best local and foreign products like Irani, Pakistani, Thailand, and Turkish products are displayed at the fair. About thousands of people flock to the fair to spend the day shopping for the best products from Bangladesh and around the world every year.
Moreover, visitors are drawn to the numerous attractive discounts, special offers, introductory prices, gifts, and lotteries of DITF. In addition, various food stalls offer delectable local and foreign food items to customers wishing to take a break from exploring the vast fair venue.
The event was virtually launched by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from her official Ganabhaban residence in Dhaka. She expressed her hope that the fair would effectively showcase the South Asian country’s potential to entrepreneurs, traders, industrialists, exporters, buyers, and visitors during her remarks at the ceremony.
She named ICT products and services the Product of the Year for 2022, urging Bangladesh’s business leaders to diversify their offerings to increase exports and business growth. She suggested, “You must move forward by creating your own brand.”
Despite the impact of COVID-19 in Bangladesh, officials said the new exhibition center was completed on time by China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC).
