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Commerce minister Inaugurates French Trade Show

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October 14, 2000 

Dhaka, Oct 13 (UNB)- A two-day trade show began in the city today displaying a wide array of French products and expertise.

Commerce Minister Abdul Jalil inaugurated the French Trade Show 2000 at Hotel Sheraton in the morning, with a call for foreign investors to invest here in rewarding ventures.

“Bangladesh is an ideal venue for investment,” he said and invited French companies to participate in Bangladesh’s strive for development.

Charge d’ Affaires of French Embassy in Bangladesh Jeam-Guy de Wargny and French Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Francis Dubus also spoke at the opening function.

A total of 20 stalls have been set up in the trade fair arraying French aptness in construction, engineering, cosmetics, power generation, telecommunications and information technology.

Lafarge, Wartsila, L’oreal, Rhone-Poulenc, MGE, Credit Agricole, Eurest Caps, Alcatel, Adex, Fransasia, Alstom and SDMO are among the French incorporations showcasing their business skills at the show.

French company Lafarge, the second-largest world leader in construction material, took the event as a platform to launch its cement on Bangladesh market.

Now working on a US$ 240 million joint-venture cement plant, Lafarge will import cement from its plant in Indonesia and market in Bangladesh until its industrial unit here starts commercial production in 2003.

Company managing director Michel Folliet said the Lafarge cement would be available in Bangladesh market by the end of this year. They will import 300,000 tons of cement either from Indonesia or Malaysia every year in 2001 and 2002.

Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd, a joint venture with Islam Group, will initially produce 1.2 million tons of cement annually against country’s average cement consumption of 5 million tons.

An executive of Graphics Information Systems, that offers computer backup services from MGE, said they had installed their services in computer systems of Ekushey TV and Lever Brothers.

Fransiab Limited, an associate of Fransasia Far East Inc., offers machinery for pulp and paper industry.

A salesman in Wartsila’s stall said they installed country’s first barge-mounted private-sector power plant in Khulna and now is working on a public- sector plant at Haripur near Dhaka. They also set up small power generators in a number of industries including, Beximco.

Inaugurating the show Commerce Minister Abdul Jalil said the trade-show would further boost the excellent trade relations between Bangladesh and France.

Bangladesh enjoys a favourable balance of trade with France as her exports amounted to US$ 400 million in 1999-2000 and imports US$ 75 million.

The Commerce Minister thanked EU for taking decision to allow duty-free and quota-free market access of products from LDCs, which, he felt, will help Bangladesh and other nations of the group increase their exports to European countries.