Badrul Ahsan :The Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) 2016 turned yesterday (Friday) into a get-together programme for the city dwellers.More than one hundred thousand people visited the fair on the day, according to the organizers.Favourable weather and political stability coupled with insufficient recreation centres in the city pushed thousands of its dwellers to visit the DITF along with their friends and family members.In addition to these, arrangement of mini ‘Shishu Mela’, 3D movie show and symbolic establishment of the country’s biggest mangrove forest ‘Sundarban’ also attracted an increased number of visitors in the fair.Tania Bin Abdullah, a visitor to the DITF, said that she and her other family members were frustrated for being almost locked at home on account of the political volatility in the country. Now she has come with other family members to visit DITF for recreation.”We used to visit DITF every year, but this year’s visit is exceptional to us as we have come out of home for recreation after a long time,” she said. “Besides, we can find many necessary goods at one place which is also another vital reason for visiting the fair,” Tania said.Md Mainul Hasan, a Class two student who was enjoying different rides of ‘shisu mela,’ expressed happiness having an extra scope for recreation.”This is my third visit to the DITF. This year’s visit is exceptional to me due to the arrangement of increased number of ‘Shishu Mela’ and 3D movie show,” he added.”We felt bored and helpless due to painful politics for long. This fair has opened a scope for recreation to us,” Asma Akhter, another visitor said.”Whatever we bought is not vital, the vital point is that we got scope to come to the open air with family members is great to us,” he said. However, following the large number of visitors, stall owners at the biggest annual fair expressed their satisfaction over the sales turnover.Almost all of them are offering stocky discounts like ‘buy one and get one free’ with cash discounts and many other benefits to attract visitors toward their products.Household items, including crockery, plastic goods, home textiles and cosmetics, are among the items that attracted the customers most.Meanwhile, many of the visitors expressed their dismay at the high prices and poor quality of goods in the fair. They said, despite discounts, prices of many goods are higher than those of normal time.”We have come to buy some household items, but the prices the sellers demand are higher than those outside the fair which really disappointed us,” a visitor told The New Nation.However, an organiser preferring anonymity said that this year’s specious roads in the fair ground, strict security, extra arrangement for recreation both for children and adults have added satisfaction to the visitors.A total of 553 stalls, pavilions and mini pavilions have been allotted to local and foreign companies. Last year there were 497 stalls and pavilions in the DITF. According to fair organising committee, 56 stalls have been allotted to companies from 21 foreign countries.The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and the Ministry of Commerce are jointly organising the mega event that will continue until 31 January at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.
