NITF from March 8

Kathmandu, Jan. 29: The 7^th Nepal International Trade Fair 2018 will be held at Bhrikutimandap Exhibition Centre from March 8 to 12 this year. 

The fair is being organised as a forum for presenting national and international brands and products and promoting them, and establishing business contacts with potential buyers, suppliers and technology providers for enhancing business, co-organiser of the event the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) said. 

"It will offer learning, exploring and discovering new opportunities by interacting with other exhibitors. It will bring together the producers, suppliers, retailers and wholesalers," said Dil Sundar Shrestha, chairperson of the Trade Fair Committee under the FNCCI. 

The event is being organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC) and co-organised by Federation of Handicraft Association of Nepal (FHAN) and Lalitpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

It is a calendar event of the FNCCI. 

 According to Shrestha, the fair will have more than 300 stalls, of them 80 per cent have been already sold. 

About 200 national and 140 international exhibitors will showcase their products in the fair.

Buyers from China, India, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan, Israel, Germany, the European Union, the United States of America, and foreign delegations from China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Korea will participate in the trade fair. 

"Handicraft and products included in the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy will be the major attractions of the exhibition. There will be special stalls for handicraft, tourism, information technology and business information, agricultural products, energy, housing and construction, education, medicine, iron and steel and automobiles," said Shrestha. 

According to him, the fair aims at holding direct interaction with the potential buyers of the 'made in Nepal' goods which will help enhance the international market of those products. Similarly, there will be discussions on promoting bilateral trade and investment promotion. 

Job fair will also be another attractive feature of the event.

"Job fair will be an interactive platform for potential employers and job seekers. It will be facilitated by Employment Service Centres (ESCs) functioning under the Department of Labour," said the organisers. 

The job fair is being organised by the FNCCI in support with the Labour Market Information and Employment Services (LIFE) project, International Labour Organisation (ILO) in order to promote ESC. 

President of the FNCCI Bhawani Rana said that the fair would play an important role in attracting international investment and technology, promoting Nepali products in the international market and thus support in the economic progress of the country. 

She said that the FNCCI would raise the issue of economic development from the local level. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on Jan. 30, 2018.