Live Correspondent: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today urged the country's businessmen to put concentration on research for product diversification and own branding to boost export and business growth.

"You (Businessmen) have to move ahead (inside and outside the country) through developing own brand" she told the inaugural ceremony of the month-long Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF)-2022 at Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Centre (BBCFEC) at Purbachal, a new city in the outskirts of the capital.

Joining virtually at the inauguration ceremony of the 26th edition of the trade fair from her official residence Ganabhaban, she said research is needed for expansion of trade and commerce to understand and maintain the product demand and its quality.

With Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, MP, in the chair, Export Promotion Bureau Vice Chairman and CEO AHM Ahsan gave the welcome address. Commerce Ministry's Senior Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh and FBCCI President Md Jashim Uddin also spoke.

The prime minister, at the function, also declared "ICT Products and Services" as the "Product of the Year" for 2022 to encourage exports in accordance with the export policy. It was not possible to arrange the DITF in the last year due to Covid-19 pandemic, but now the trade fair is being taken place at its permanent venue (BBCFEC) for the first time.

This year, the fair has been arranged keeping in mind the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the golden jubilee of the country's independence and the development activities of the government.

Sheikh Hasina extended credit to industrial entrepreneurs-owners-laborers as they had pulled the country's economy ahead even during the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that the economy was not stalled fully rather it was kept rolling, whereas the economies of many countries across the globe stood still almost completely.

She said when the Awami League government was formed in 2009 the total export earning was $15.56 billion, which they have raised to $45.38 billion in the last 13 years. Bangladesh is moving forward, the next generation will get self-respecting, non-communal, developed and happy prosperous golden Bangladesh as dreamt by the Father of the Nation, she added.

Dhaka, 01 January (campuslive24.com)//AZ