Int'l Women Trade Fair kicks off virtually

Kathmandu, Sept. 1

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the fifth International Women Trade fair 2021 on Wednesday afternoon at a virtual programme.

The trade fair is kicking off on Thursday virtually and will be on till Monday, September 6.

Speaking on the occasion, PM Deuba said that entrepreneurship and economic development will help improve the economy which was destablised by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Women entrepreneurs are among those most affected by the pandemic.

Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (FWEAN) -- organiser of the event -- said that the fair was being organised to create a common platform for the exhibition, promotion, marketing and selling of the products produced by women entrepreneurs.

"We aim to motivate women entrepreneurs for the online marketing of their products, and creation of relations and networks between them and stakeholders," it said in a statement.

Women trade fair also has objectives to promote cost-effective platforms for the new products, services and technologies, bring the producers and buyers to a same platform, and find best online opportunities to create connection between the businesses and businesses to consumers.

President of the FWEAN Reeta Simha said that the fair would provide a virtual means to the women entrepreneurs to promote and sale their products and help in exchanging knowledge and skills.

This is the time when the daily routine of common people has transformed to the digital market and activities, therefore this fair will support the entrepreneurs to find new avenues of the market and find newer ways of marketing as well, said Simha.

First Vice President of the organisation Niru Rayamajhi Khatri said that the platform was created as a common space to encourage women entrepreneurs.

FWEAN had been successfully organising the International Women Trade Fair in Kathmandu. But due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the fair couldn't be orgnaised in 2020.

However, this year, we decided to go to virtual platform to showcase the goods produced by women entrepreneurs, said Reeta Simha.

Main attractions of the fair are handicraft, wooden products, natural fibre products, Dhaka and hand woven goods, jewelries, decorative items, hand-made paper goods and stalls of various service provider organisations.

There will be 79 stalls including 57 from women entrepreneurs and 22 from the district women entrepreneurs associations. Two stalls are provided to the women entrepreneurs who were the victims of the fire and are socially marginised.

The fair is live after the inauguration and can be viewed from the links https://www.facebook.com/WinBiz.com.np or http://expo.winbiz.com.np.

The fair is supported by the International Labour Organization, FCA and The Asia Foundation.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 2 September 2021.