Bangladesh approves construction of exhibition center with Chinese grant

Bangladesh's highest economic policy- making body gave the greenlight to a proposal on Tuesday to build an exhibition center with Chinese financing.

The project was approved at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters after the meeting that the Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Center will cost 7.96 billion taka (100 million U.S. dollars) and China will provide 6.26 billion taka (80 million U.S. dollars) as grant.

The 20-acre exhibition center will be built in Purbachal, a new town on the outskirts of the capital of Dhaka.

A Planning Ministry official said a Chinese firm will construct the exhibition center and hand it over to the Bangladesh government by 2018.

The Beijing Institute of Architectural Design has already prepared a design for the center with 806 booths each in two big hall rooms.

There will also be a conference room, a press center, meeting rooms and a business information center, as well as a parking lot for 1,500 cars. On the first floor, there will be a maternity corner and creche.

Bangladesh's annual Dhaka International Trade Fair, in which companies from India, Pakistan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, the United States, Singapore, Australia, Britain, the UAE and Germany regularly participate, will be held in the center from 2018. Endi