Gift show to draw 100,000 visitors
The Commerce Ministry expects up to 100,000 visitors at this week's Bangkok International Gift Fair and Bangkok International Houseware Fair (BIG&BIH) at the Impact Convention and Exhibition Centre, Muang Thong Thani.
The show is an important part of the sector's drive to at least match last year's export value of US$1.5 billion (Bt52.5 billion). Twenty thousand visitors are expected to attend the exhibit on the trade days, tomorrow until Friday, and 80,000 on Saturday and Sunday, when the fair is open to the public. Rachane Potjanasuntorn, director-general of the Department of Export Promotion, said the visitors would include 2,165 buyers and importers with advance reservations from the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and India. He added that Thai gifts and houseware were widely recognised globally, generating about $1.5 billion in 2006 export value, an increase of 9 per cent over 2005. The department hopes to better that figure this year. "The most significant things that we will provide all the entrepreneurs and visitors with are a complete security system and other special facilities. They are set to boost our participant and visitor confidence. "Our security officers will scrutinise the area all the time, including all the bags of visitors," he said. A bar-code system will be used to investigate all products showcased in the event. This will also raise visitor confidence and safety. Tomorrow the department will join hands with commercial banks to provide entrepreneurs and visitors with financial services or transactions. Representatives from the Thai International Freight Forwarder Association will also be on hand to facilitate all forwarding. Running in conjunction with BIG&BIH April 2007 will be OTOP to the World 2007.
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