The participants said visitors' response was mixed. "From this show last year, we got spot orders worth 3.3 lakh US dollars, which is only 2 to 2.5 lakh dollars this year," said NM Saiful Islam, senior executive of Taiwan-based sewing machine manufacturer T-Mach Corporation Ltd.

M Parvez, marketing and sales executive of Pandora Associates Ltd which provides button testing solutions, said the response from visitors was below expectation.

Akhter Hossain, marketing executive of Fargo Syndicate Ltd, a Chinese fabric agent, said the exhibitors usually do not expect large volumes of sales from exhibitions.

"This type of exhibition creates opportunities for direct interaction with clients where exhibitors can have better ideas about manufacturers' demands," he added.

Among the products displayed, Chinese and Korean machinery attracted most visitors.

"Chinese and Korean machines are cheaper than the others," said an officer of the Rose Garments Designer Ltd.

Conference and Exhibition Management Services Ltd (CEMS) Bangladesh, in association with CEMS USA, organised the 8th version of the TEXTECH and the 4th version of MACHINEXPO & DIFS'2007 at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka.

250 companies from 15 countries took part in the event. The participating countries included India, Thailand, USA, Germany, Singapore, Turkey, Taiwan, China, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Spain, UK and Bangladesh.

The Daily Star was the media partner of the event.