Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, Chief Adviser, People’s Republic of Bangladesh is giving his opening remarks in the inauguration of the fair on 20th October. At the same time, Mr. Anwarul Iqbal, Adviser, Ministry of Labor, Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman, Adviser, Ministry of Commerce as special guests; Mr. Fazlul Hoque, President, BKMEA; Members of the Board of Director of BKMEA were also on the stage.

About Exhibitors and Visitors
A total of 29 institutions from both home and abroad displayed their products in 56 stalls. Among these 29 institutions, 18 were high quality knitwear producers, 3 sweater, 1 yarn, 5 machinery, 1 printing, and 1dice chemical producer. The participants were: Pioneer Sweaters Ltd., Ruposhi Knitwear Ltd., Fakharuddin Textiles mills Ltd., Nadim Textiles Mills Ltd., Prominent apparels Ltd., Metro Knitting & Dying Mills Ltd., Anwara Group, Grameen knitwear Ltd., S M Knitwear Ltd., Oboni Knitwear Ltd., Irish fabrics Ltd., Juki Bangladesh Ltd., Cootech Software (Pvt.) Ltd., Fakir Group, Inter Soft Apparels Ltd., Dysin Chemical Ltd., Fuji Knitwear Ltd., FGS Knitwear Ltd., Lisky Technology (BD) Ltd., Mondol Fabrics Ltd., Montex Fabrics Ltd., Robintex Bangladesh Ltd., Chi Siang Ind. Co. Dol., Minar Ind. (Pvt.) Ltd., Texmac (Bangladesh) Ltd., Defoin Group, maxi Fiber Group, Niagra Textiles Ltd., Bangla Cat, Rime Bank. The best stall award was given to Metro Knitting & Dying, Ruposhi Knitwear, Fakhruddin Textiles, and Fakir Apparel. Mondol Group for accessories and Bangla cat for other category were awarded prizes.

Buyers from ten countries including the US, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Spain, Germany etc also participated in the fair. The fair generated lots of anticipation and a large number of buyers from both and abroad visited the fair with great enthusiasm.

Seminars
BKMEA organized a seminar on ‘New Dimension in Apparel Sourcing: Challenges & Opportunities for Bangladesh’ at Grand Ball Room of Dhaka Sheraton on the second day of the fair.  Dr. Wahiduddin Mahmud, former Adviser, Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh was the chief guest at the seminar while Dr. Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Dialogue, Ghulam Faruq, Chairman, SQ group were the special guests of the program. Mr. Fazlul Hoque, President, BKMEA presided over the seminar. Renowned economists, representatives from civil society, foreign buyers, diplomats, business leaders, government officials, donor agencies, and media people were present in the function.

To highlight the importance of Lean manufacturing in increasing productivity and to raise awareness on productivity improvement, BKMEA also organized another seminar on ‘Productivity Improvement through Lean Manufacturing: Challenges & Opportunities for Bangladesh’ at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel at the third day of the fair. Mr. Md. Shahab Ullah, Vice- Chairman, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) was the chief guest at the seminar while Mr. Abdul Hai Sarkar, Chairman, BTMA was the special guest. BKMEA President Md. Fazlul Hoque presided over the meeting while Dr. Md. Abdul Moyeen, director and chairman of the productivity improvement committee conducted the meeting. A large number of factory owners, business leaders, high ranked officials from factories, engineers, economists, donor agencies and media personnel were present in the function. The seminar was very informative and ended successfully with the participation of all.

Dinner Meeting
Creating a platform for all stakeholders to meet together and contribute towards common goals is one of the main objectives of Knit Expo. Dinner meeting is an effort of BKMEA to create such a platform.  BKMEA arranges Dinner in honor of diplomats, donor agencies, and buyers on the occasion of Knit Expo 08 at the Grand Ball Room of Hotel Sheraton on 21 October, 2008. Highest level representatives from the embassy of Germany, Korea, Switzerland, France and some other countries took part in the function. Local representatives of the buyers like: Haddad organization (BD) Ltd, Littlewoods Retail Ltd, Nike Inc, Wal- Mart Global Procurement, Bangladesh Branch, Li & Fung (Bangladesh) Ltd, Lisky Technology Company Ltd. and buyers from Europe, America, Japan, Korea were also present in the dinner. Besides, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), World Bank, International Labor Organization (ILO), German Technical Cooperation and other donor agencies, local representatives expressed their views to develop the knit sector. There was a special arrangement to visit the stalls after dinner.

Cultural Night
The 3 days long Knit expo was ended with a dazzling cultural night program. Famous Singer of the subcontinent Mitali Mukharji kept the audiences amused with her melodious songs on 21st November, the first day of cultural program. On the second day, famous singer Subir Nondi, Ayub Bachhu performed some modern songs. Later, the gusts enjoyed the dance performance of Nadia, Mahbub and their group.