Businessmen request for seven days extension of DITF-2023

Staff Reporter :
Businessmen participating at the Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) – 2023 have proposed an extension for seven more days to end February 7 instead of January 31 after sending a formal letter to the Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday.
Participating traders put forwarded some reasons behind the proposed extension of fair such as taking more time to prepare the stalls or pavilions. They argued that due to the cold waves there was a shortage of carpenter, mason and electrician that resulted to take more time to prepare stalls.
Correspondingly, due to the two phases of Bishwa Ijtema from January 13-15 and January 20-22, there were huge rushes of traffic in Dhaka. As a result, the number of visitors at the fair dropped. So did the sales on those six days.
Businessmen said that they will face a huge loss if the DITF not extended as the plenty of produced are being unsold.
Regarding this issue, Iftikher Ahmed Chowdhury the Director of DITF-2023 and the Secretary of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) said to journalists that they have no plan to extend the ongoing DITF. The authority is now preparing to conclude the fair at the scheduled time of 31 January.
Meanwhile, after the inauguration by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the month-long Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) was started on January one at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Center, Purbachal.
The gate of the international trade fair opens at 10am every day and closes at 9 pm, except for the government holidays when the fair runs till 10pm. Every adult visitor needs to pay Tk40 for entry tickets while for minors the ticket price is set at Tk20.
This 27th edition of the DITF-2023 has featured some 351 local and foreign stalls, pavilions and mini pavilions, up from the previous year’s tally of 225.