Bombs And Rains Don`t Deter BeePasha Fans
India Package Meet at Dhaka is a great success

BeePasha's twin city foreign jaunt saw her keeping her promised date with Dhaka on the 18th August. And the Dhakaites did not disappoint BeePasha. The previous day’s series of bomb blasts in the country and the early morning downpour could not deter the people of this friendly city as they turned up in large numbers at Hotel Purbani for the second leg of the India Package Meet.

The Chief Guest was the Minister of Commerce, Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury. He spoke of the tremendous strides made by Bangladesh in the past year despite the floods that had literally submerged the country. `We have increased our exports by over 16 percent in the last year and need improved packaging to reach our targets in the coming years,` he said. He expected that the Indian companies supplying equipment and materials will help Bangladesh to adopt the latest technologies and materials to meet the growing demand from the processed & frozen food and the pharmaceutical industries besides the booming garment industry.

The Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) and the Bangladesh Corrugated Carton & Accessories Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BCCAMEA) were the joint organizers of the India Package Meet. “The inevitability of economic co-operation within the south Asian countries is getting political endorsement and a massive Indian investment in Bangladesh is on the cards led by the 2.5 billion investment by Tatas,” said Saifullah Chowdhary, the President of BCCAMEA. He spoke about a steady demand for Indian equipment and materials by the Banladeshi Converters and hoped that increased interactions between the Indian and Banladeshi companies in forums like these had the potential to raise the level of co-operation to higher levels.

Earlier, welcoming the gathering, Professor Joshi of IIP had spoken about the need to exchange ideas between the Indian and Bangladesi converters, suppliers and users of packaging so that a meaningful and coherent strategy of co-operation between the two countries could be prepared. “The quality of Indian products is improving at the precise moment that the Bangladeshi converters are looking for world class products,” said Joshi.

He hoped that the meet and the upcoming triple show in Chennai would provide an opportunity for the Bangladeshis to evaluate the latest developments in India.

The technical seminars that followed the inaugural session were well received. Two of the speakers chose to make their presentations in Bangla- the native language. Gourav Roy of Flexo Image Graphics spoke about ‘Inline Converting Solutions for Labels, Flexible Packaging and Folding Cartons’. Mr. Ram Gopal Agarwala of Fancy Prahladka spoke about the ‘Trends & Technical Developments in Corrugated Packaging’. The audience that nevertheless had no trouble following the other two presentations in English lapped up all the presentations. A K Dutta of Kurz India spoke on ‘Value addition with stamping foils’ and Siva Nagarajan spoke about Barcode- Packaging for global markets.

The accompanying tabletop exhibition featured 15 Indian exhibitors and a lone Banladeshi company displaying varied products that included adhesives, barcode equipment, solutions & consumables, converting equipment, corrugated packaging machinery, flexo presses, hot & cold stamping foils, inkjet printers, label presses, multi-layered poly film and UV curing systems. “I never expected to meet so many prospects in such a short time,” said an elated Rishi Nagpal of Nagpal Industries.

“We expect to see a raise in the number of visitors to the ‘triple show’ from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with these events,” said Anil Arora on behalf of Print-Packaging.com (P) Ltd., the promoters of the meet. He also indicated that the future events might see an extensive campaign in several other countries in the region.

Date: 26-Aug-2005

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