The 6th International Women Entrepreneurs Trade Fair is set to kick off in Lalitpur from August 18 to 22. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is scheduled to inaugurate the Trade Expo and Symposium, the flagship programme of FWEAN on August 18, that will bring together women entrepreneurs from Nepal as well as other SAARC countries.
During a press meet organized in Kathmandu on Sunday, the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal (FWEAN), the main organizer of the event, informed that the expo is aimed at identifying successful women entrepreneurs living in rural parts of the country and promote their products to encourage them to continue their entrepreneurship. The venue of the trade fair will be Heritage Garden in Lalitpur, which will show case a total 109 stalls.
Speaking on the occasion, FWEAN President Niru Rayamajhi Khatri said women entrepreneurs from all seven provinces in Nepal will participate in the trade fair. “All women entrepreneurs are eagerly waiting to bring various goods including herbal products, handicraft items as well as food items they have produced by investing their skills, time and money in the market and to get the customers,” she remarked.
Women entrepreneurs had to face huge losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown in the past two and half years, pointed out Khatri. “Some of the entrepreneurs even reached the stage of shutting down their businesses due to frustration,” she said adding “Many business enterprises were forced to sack their staff.” While taking these challenges as opportunities, we will bring together all women entrepreneurs in a single platform and provide them unique opportunities to learn from each other’s experiences,” remarked president Khatri.
Senior Vice President Sobha Gyawali, who is also coordinator of the 6th International Women Enterpreneurs Trade Fair, said the event will showcase handicraft products, items made from natural fiber, Dhaka and handmade paper products, wooden products, organic food and jewelry items among other things. The fair will also include stalls of both national and international women entrepreneurs, according to Gyawali
“The fair will provide opportunity to those visiting the stalls to observe and buy high quality products of women entrepreneurs both from Nepal and other SAARC countries including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, she said.”