The Hindu Business Line : Trade fair venue shifted to Salt Lake

The 20th Industrial India Trade Fair, the biggest in the eastern region, is scheduled to be held during January 22-February 1, but this year the fair venue has to be shifted from Maidan to Salt Lake Stadium Grounds. Also there has been change in dates from December end to January.

The fair will be inaugurated by the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, at Yuva Bharati Krirangan. Due to change of venue from Kolkata Maidan to Salt Lake Stadium, "we have not been able to accommodate all the participants willing to participate in this fair for paucity of space, said Mr Samir Kumar Ghosh of the fair organising committee.

Mr Ghosh told presspersons here on Wednesday that the fair had been playing an important role in showcasing West Bengal as an important investment destination, and it had successfully contributed to the socio-economic development of the State.

3 big pavilions

The West Bengal Government will put up three big pavilions highlighting the industrial progress and future development programmes of the State, while Enterprise Development Institute promoted by the Chamber, entrepreneurs of Pragati-ladies wing of the Chamber and the members of the Sub-Contracting Exchange of Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry will also participate in this fair. Many foreign countries are participating with China in a big way. A 40-member business delegation will come from Sichuan Sub Council, China.

Mr Ghosh said a business conference would be arranged with the Chinese delegation, facilitating business people to get the opportunity of acquiring technologies and also to compare their capabilities with others.

The fair committee will organise several business meets. Since the focus is on SMEs, the committee has encouraged collective participation of SMEs. SMEs from the neighbouring Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura will participate under the umbrella of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India.

A, B & C sectors

The fair is divided into three sectors i.e. A, B & C. Sector `A' has been allotted primarily to big corporate houses, big business organisations/firms which are putting up their pavilion to exhibit their products, technologies and services and there will be no counter-selling from this sector.

Sector `B' will have readymade stalls of 9 sq. m., where participants from outside as also units belonging to SMEs with machineries, tools, equipment and others will participate and there will be no counter-selling from this sector also.

In Sector `C', both open space and constructed stalls have been provided. Participants in this sector are free to make counter sale of their products. There is again a separate site under this sector named `International Sector' where participants from various countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Turkey, Thailand and Egypt would participate. For the first time food stalls from Pakistan will be displayed.