The Hindu : City to host international trade fair from Dec. 27

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

City to host international trade fair from Dec. 27

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI June 30. The India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) under the Commerce Ministry and the Tamil Nadu Trade Promotion Organisation (TNTPO) are promoting an international fair in the city on the lines of the annual IITF held at the Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.

The first edition of the Chennai International Trade Fair (CITF) is scheduled from December 27, 2003, to January 4, 2004, and has been conceived as a consumer-oriented one, though in future it could focus on a variety of themes.

To be held in the Chennai Trade Centre (CTC), a facility of international standards built by the TNTPO, itself a joint venture of the ITPO and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) and which had been in operation for nearly two years now, the fair will feature telecommunications, consumer electronics and durables, agri products, textiles and garments, toys, leather, footwear, jewellery, computer software and IT, publishing, hand tools, health, cosmetics, tourism etc.

With its schedule chosen in proximity in time to the IITF (India International Trade Fair, Delhi, normally held from November 14 to 27), the Chennai fair is likely to be made attractive in particular to those exhibitors who choose to participate in both through a concession in the tariff. However, the extent of the concession is yet to be decided.

Addressing a meeting to mark the promotional launch of the CITF, J. Vasudevan, Chairman and Managing Director of the ITPO, said the Rs. 26-crore Convention Centre with a seating capacity of 1,500, being built in the second phase of the Chennai Trade Centre, would be completed by this year-end. He pointed out that Tamil Nadu was the first State to take advantage of the ITPO's initiative to promote fair complexes of world standard in different regions.

Such centres were only now being built or planned in centres like Bangalore, Calcutta, Guwahati and Ahmedabad.

He hoped that participants in CITF 2003 would include exhibitors from Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia.

Ranjan Chatterjee, Executive Director, ITPO, suggested to the Tamil Nadu Government to help market the Chennai fair by introducing appropriate regulations.

He also urged the TNTPO to adopt the culture of marketing fairs among visitors and not merely among potential exhibitors, invite representatives of foreign media and have tie-ups with airlines for visitor facilitation. K. S. Palanisamy, managing director, TNTPO, said the 6,500-sq.-metre CTC, whose first phase had cost Rs. 25 crores, had already hosted fifty fairs in the past 18 months.

K. Skandan, Secretary-Industry to the Tamil Nadu Government, said trade fairs were becoming important with the globalisation of markets, warranting not only micro-level attention to quality but also a new mindset towards marketing.

He said the ITPO had not written to the State Government requesting it to shift its annual tourism fair (held on Island Grounds in the city) to the Chennai Trade Centre.

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