The Bengal Chamber of Commerce, along with GS Marketing Associates, organised the 17th edition of The India International Mega Trade Fair at Science City Grounds, Kolkata, between December 14 - 25, 2018.

Shri Amit Mitra, Hon'ble Hon'ble Minister-in-Charge, Departments of Finance, Industry, Commerce & Entreprises, MSME & Textiles and Information Technology & Electronics, Govt of West Bengal was the Chief Guest at the Inauguration. Others who were present at the Inauguration included Mr. K. S. Nagnyal, ED-CC, LIC of India, Mr. D. Das, Addl. Director General, Income Tax Publicity Department, Mr. Saiful Islam, 1st Secretary (Commerce) of Bangladesh Dy. High Commission, Kolkata, Suresh Karmali, Zonal GM, NSIC Limited, Kolkata, Mr. Prakash Shah Chairman, Exhibition & Trade fair committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Chairman G. S. Marketing Associates and Mr. Indrajit Sen, President, The Bengal Chamber, amongst others.

Trade fairs, conferences, business events, economic forums and exhibitions can be defined in a unified manner as sophisticated platform for conducting business on a national and international scale. These Trade fairs are a high-impact method to disclose new products, services and trends. Everywhere world trade fair is a great stage for head to head, business-to-business communication for exhibitors and visitors from any branch of the industry. It is more than just a marketing tool as the entire marketplace is at one's fingertips. As a source of market information they fulfill needs in a centralized way. They provide an excellent opportunity to assess opinions from clients and determine market potential, conduct research and evaluate competition, develop commercial structures by identifying new agents and distributors, and initiating joint ventures and project partnerships.

The Chamber's main aim through this fair is to bring Bengal to the economic forefront of our country by helping to increase the business relations between West Bengal with other states and countries.

This year, this Mega Trade Fair had participation from 16 Foreign Countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Egypt, Myanmar, Thailand, Bhutan, Turkey etc.

The Mega Trade Fair also had Thailand as the Focus Country and Afghanisthan being the Partner Country, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu being Partner States with Assam & Jharkhand being the Focus States. We also saw participation from 21 Indian states - Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerela, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh etc being some of the states that participated in this Fair in a large way.

Very interestingly, this year we had sizeable escalation of footfalls which may have had crossed over one million visitors. It is very interesting to note that despite warning of cyclonic whether, the flow of visitors continued. The visitors included industry leaders, high government officials, corporate decision- makers, manufacturers, traders, foreigners and a large number of buyers.