The government has taken up a Tk796 crore project to build a permanent trade exhibition centre at Purbachal, the largest of its kind in Bangladesh. Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Center will be constructed on 20 acres of land at the under construction new satellite town. The construction of the centre aims to create scope for showcasing products of both producers and exporters to attract buyers, as well as to establish a platform for both the buyers and sellers. The centre will have two superior halls with space for 806 booths of 9m by 9m each, apart from arrangement for a parking site for some 1,500 cars. Besides, there will be a conference room, press centre, trade information centre, reception centre, service room, sub-station and other necessary facilities. According to project plan, China will provide Tk625.70 crore as grant, the government Tk138.18 crore and Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) will bear the remaining Tk32.13 crore. EPB will implement the project by June, 2018 under the turn-key method with Chinese grant. The project was approved yesterday by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair held at the NEC conference room. It is one of the nine projects worth Tk3,368.63 crore approved by the Ecnec, according to Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal who briefed reporters after the meeting. Of the total outlay, Tk2,379.31 crore will come from the government exchequer, Tk32.13 crore from the related public organisation’s own fund and the remaining Tk957.19 crore as project assistance. Of the approved nine projects, eight are new and one is a revised project. ECNEC also approved another Tk420.3 crore project titled “procurement of machinery and equipment for the city corporations and pourasavas from Belarus.” The Belarus will provide the vehicles under a deal signed between Minsk and Dhaka during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to the Eastern European country in 2012. Local Government Division will implement the project by June, 2016 under which the machinery and equipment valued Tk331.5 crore will be procured from Belarus. The fund will be used for waste collection, transportation and cleaning, drain construction, maintenance and cleaning, road construction and maintainable in all the country’s 11 city corporations and 323 pourasavas. Replying to a question, Mustafa Kamal said Prime Minister already directed the authorities concerned to undertake initiative for providing basic needs of the people of the former exclaves after the recent historic exchange with India. He said steps would also be taken to ensure construction of roads, schools and colleges, places of worships, community clinics in the former exclaves while work for distributing electricity would begin in those areas over the next three months.
