29th US Trade Show begins at a Dhaka hotel

The three-day 29th Annual US Trade Show will begin in the city's InterContinental Hotel Thursday.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) and the United States Embassy are the cosponsors of the three-day trade show from May 9-11.

Salman Fazlur Rahman, Private Industry and Investment Adviser to the Prime Minister, will attend the opening event as the chief guest at 10:30 am. Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, will remain present as the special guest.

AmCham President Syed Ershad Ahmed and US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter D. Haas will also remain present at the inaugural function.

This year, over hundreds of US products represented by 44 exhibitors from home and abroad will be on display in 79 booths in the show venue.

In addition to the exhibition of American products and services, there will also be five seminars during the event. On the first day tomorrow, two seminars- "Inclusive Innovation: Empowering Women in the Al Era" will be held at 3:00 p.m. and "U.S. Export Licensing for Importers" will take place at 4:30 p.m.

On the second day on Friday, three seminars will be held. First one on "Studying in the U.S. and Student Visas" will take place at 10:30 am, second one on "USAID Development Work with the Private Sector" at 3:00 pm while the third one on "Doing Business with the U.S. and Business Visas" will take place at 4:30 pm.

The show will remain open for visitors all three days from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 pm. The entry fee for this year's show is Tk 30 per person. Students in uniform or with identity cards will be allowed free entry. There will be attractive prizes for a few lucky visitors, based on a raffle drawing of entry ticket coupons after the Trade Show.

This year's Trade Show will be taking place during World Trade Month (May) which has been recognized in the US since 1938 and promotes the importance of International Trade to the US Economy. Since 1992, this three-day-long exhibition has emerged as Bangladesh's premier annual business event, drawing thousands of visitors each time.

According to the US Embassy, the US is the largest investor in Bangladesh having worth over $4 billion of investment. The US government as well as its private sector is looking forward to the measures which would make the US investments a lot easier in Bangladesh as well as how Bangladesh makes further improvements in investment climate.