The Nepal Weekly 
August 23, 2022
The 6th International Women’s Trade Expo – 2022 organized by Federation of Women Entrepreneurs’ Association Nepal (FWEAN) concluded at Heritage Garden, Sanepa in Lalitpur on Monday showcasing various goods and services produced by women entrepreneurs from Nepal and other South Asian Countries. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba opened the fair on August 18, which was organized with the aim of identifying and encouraging the entrepreneurship of successful women entrepreneurs living in rural areas.
There were a total of 109 stalls that showcased various handicraft items, Mithila arts, hand woven clothes, food items, shoes, bags, honey, pulses, pulses, fruits etc. Along with Nepali products, items from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Columbia (USA) also featured at the exhibition. Entrepreneurs from different districts of seven provinces of the country are participating in the 6th International Women Entrepreneurs Business Fair organized by the federation.
According to Shobha Gyawali, Senior Vice President of Federation of Women Entrepreneurs of Nepal, the trade fair was organized with the slogan ‘eat Nepali, wear Nepali and encourage Nepali entrepreneurship.’
Goods manufactured by women entrepreneurs from various districts including Khotang, Dadeldhura, Jajarkot and others were displayed during the fair. She said that the fair was organized with the aim of empowering women and making their business sustainable, bringing innovation to the business involving women entrepreneurs from the village and bringing it to the market, and educating the women entrepreneurs about producing goods as per the needs of the customers by conducting market survey. Gyawali said that due to the Covid pandemic, all the countries of the SAARC nation could not participate in the fair this time.
The department stores in Kathmandu that used to be filled with foreign goods have now been filled with Nepal made products, pointed out Gyawali. “Until recently, all the department stores in Nepal had pickles and other items from India, but after the Nepali people started making pickles during the lockdown period, now even in that department stores pickles, honey and other products made by women sisters are displayed.
She complained that because the government’s wrong policy that doesn’t encourage domestic products the government data in the last financial year showed that goods such as agarbatti, toothpicks, Janai thread, incense, etc., which can be made from materials found in Nepal, were imported worth billions of rupees. She said that products produced by Nepalese brothers and sisters could not be sold because they were imported without caring about the goods produced domestically.
The government should ban import of handicrafts and other related items for encouraging indigenously made produced, she demanded. The government need to instructs its subordinate offices to buy and use artifacts, handicrafts and clothes produced within the country instead of importing them using by spending hard earned foreign currency, she demanded. In addition to this, she expressed the view that only essential goods such as medicines should be imported but the government should stop import of fashion items, she added.
Gyawali also claimed that the International Trade Fairs being organized by the federation since 2016 has been able to stop importing foreign goods to some extent. According to Gyawali ambassadors from Dubai, Australian, Sri Lanka and Pakistan and who visited the trade fair also purchased handicrafts and other items produced in Nepal. She said that daily at least 6,000 visitors came to the trade fair which attracted so far 50,000 visitors.
