Fair of plastic goods begins tomorrow
Plastic goods from local and international markets will be on display at a four-day “International Plastics Fair-2018” at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka starting tomorrow.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed is scheduled to inaugurate the annual fair to be organised by the Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BPGMEA) and Yorkers Trade & Marketing Service Co Ltd.
There will be 480 stalls with local companies presenting products in 15 categories, said Md Jashim Uddin, BPGMEA president, at a press conference at its office in Dhaka yesterday.
He said the major categories were household items, packaging materials, moulds, tableware, toys, pharmaceutical items, furniture, melamine products, garment accessories and polypropylene (PP) woven bags.
Foreign companies will be displaying goods manufacturing machinery such as those for injection and blow moulding, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) products, and PP woven and plastic bags. Jashim expects 20 percent higher turnout compared to last year's, saying the response from local and international companies was high. Visitor numbers are also predicted to be higher by 20,000 from last year's 3.5 lakh.
He said their association prepared a roadmap for 2030, estimating that annual consumption per person would rise from five to 30 kilogrammes.
Currently, Tk 25,000 crore worth of plastic goods are produced and sold in the domestic market while the sector has been contributing Tk 3,500 crore to the government's exchequer in a year.
Over 12 lakh people are dependent on nearly 5,000 plastic factories of small and medium scale while plastic goods ranked 12th among national exports last fiscal year, said Jashim.
Local companies are capable of producing goods of global standards such as jugs, mugs, drug packets, syringes, blood collection bags, tableware, doors, windows, sanitary ware, electronics, telephone sets and toys.
Annual global import of plastic goods amounts to $570 billion; the market size for textile and apparel, Bangladesh's top export earning sector, is $772 billion.
In fiscal 2016-17, Bangladesh exported plastic goods worth $607.15 million, which was 1.74 percent of the country's total exports of $34.84 billion, according to the BPGMEA. The year before, plastic goods export was worth $510.41 million.
Jashim said the Bangladesh Institute of Plastic Engineering and Technology was established on 125.87 acres of land at Keraniganj in Dhaka with financial assistance from the commerce ministry to produce skilled manpower.