More than 8,000 people visited the two day “Lalitpur Metropolitan City Cottage Industry Exhibition” organized by Small and Cottage Industry Federation, Lalitpur Metropolitan City Committee in the premises of Lalitpur Metropolis. There were altogether 52 stalls mostly selling products made by women entrepreneurs in the exhibition that concluded on Saturday.
Food items such as honey, pickles and beaten rice, cotton clothes, homemade shoes, bags made from natural fibre, woollen sweater, Dhaka topi and shawl are some of the items on display during the exhibition. This was the third edition of the Cottage industry exhibition, said Shailendra Shrestha, chairperson of the federation’s Lalitpur Metropolis committee. The first edition of the exhibition was organized some six months ago, which was inaugurated by Lalitpur Mayor Chiribabu Maharjan, he informed.
Now we are planning to organize the exhibition every weed-end on Friday and Saturday, he said. The main objective of the exhibition was to promote locally made products and to provide income generating opportunity to the local people, he pointed out. Ninety per cent of the stalls belonged to the women entrepreneurs, he added.
Our main objective to promote made in goods and mostly women entrepreneurs are encouraged to participate in the exhibition, remarked Shrestha. The federation has charged Rs. 1,500 to every stall and those stalls which has been run by the entrepreneurs who have received training from the Lalitpur Metropolis will get stalls free of charge, he added. This time we did not charge fee for six stalls operated by women, who were trained by the metropolis,” pointed out Shrestha.