The curtain is down for the Bangladesh's maiden pharmaceutical industry trade show organized by Bangladesh Association for Pharmaceutical Industry (BAPI). The three day event, which started on February 23, 2003, at the Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre at Dhaka, though evoked a fair response among the participants, the local industry has welcomed it as a significant step in its progressive path towards global direction.

BAPI, the event organizer and the apex pharmaceutical industry body in the country, has however promised to carry on the Expo as a regular event in every two years as it is convinced with the utility of such an event to interact with their overseas counterparts to get adopted to the industry worldwide.

While speaking to Pharmabiz.com at the exhibition venue, Shaffiuzzaman, president, and Nazmul Hassan, secretary general, BAPI, said that the Asia Pharma Expo 2003 has proved an ideal platform for the local industry to know the industry out side the country very closely. "We have decided to make it a regular industry event here, so that we can keep updating ourselves with the world trend," they said. They added that there were minor shortcomings in the whole event, but still we are satisfied as it all were good lessons to us as it is the first event of this kind in the country, and we can improve it further in the forthcoming events.

Though the event promoters projected the show as a true international conference and trade show with speakers and exhibitors from various countries, great majority of participants were from India and the seminar attached to the event hardly caught the attention of the visitors with scarcity of speakers and topics.

One of the conference/exhibition venues in the Asian region, Bangladesh China Conference Centre found grossly under utilized, as there were no adequate indicators to the utilities. As number of foreign exhibitors could not display their products at their stalls as it got stuck at the Bangladesh Customs, many of them were furious on the inactiveness of the event managers in this regard. However, majority of the exhibitors seemed satisfied with the turn out of the visitors and the trade enquiries especially on the last two days. The total number of visitors at for the whole three days at the exhibition was estimated at around 6000. Though the event promoters claimed that the estimated business emerged from the exhibition is around INR 46 crore, there were no official figures available on this yet. exhibitors the exhibitors were mainly from the areas of pharmaceutical formulations, machineries, excepients and other related services.

The three-day exhibition and conference was inaugurated by Dr. Khandekar Musharaff Hossain, Hon. Minister, Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh. Dr Hossian, while declaring the opening of the country's maiden pharmaceutical event, said that the government of Bangladesh has identified pharmaceutical industry as one the key growth sectors and there are many progressive schemes have been proposed to encourage faster development of this industry.

The Health minister said that as the Prime Minister' office and his ministry has all set to take up the challenges ahead for ensuring the expected progress of the drug sector and also attaining adequate strength in the production of quality drugs locally. " This is a golden opportunity for the local industry to get in touch with the global players in the pharmaceutical and related industry segments, and it is ought to have very positive implications on the overall growth in the capabilities of the domestic industry," Dr Hossain said.

At the opening ceremony, Nazmul Hassan, secretary general, BAPI and director (marketing & commercial), Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited, made a key note presentation on the history and future prospects of the Bangladesh pharmaceutical industry. He said that the country's pharmaceutical industry has already been able to acquire the required strength to compete in the global market. However, it is still dependent on basic products like APIs and allied items. "In order to encourage pharma exports from Bangladesh, the industry needs to change the present state of mindset and should believe that we can exploit the export opportunities in the best possible way," He emphasized that for the expected growth, the industry should have a dedicated Cell for pharma exports, good research and development infrastructure and skill, bulk drug capability, incentives from government and good coordination with government authorities.

Shaffi Usaman, president, BAPI, welcomed the guests and delegates and Samson H Chowdhury, organizing secretary, APE, addressed the seminar along with Fazalu Rehman, secretary, ministry of health and family welfare, Amanulla Aman, state minister, ministry of health and family welfare, Barkutulla Bulu, state commerce minister.