The five-day expo is being organized by the Nepal Furniture and Furnishing Association (NFFA). It features 60 stalls of companies dealing on furniture and furnishing products of both home and abroad. According to the organizers, 40 percent of the stalls are showcasing products form countries like Thailand, India, Vietnam, China, Germany, Turkey, Malaysia and Belgium.[break]
Inaugurating the expo, Finance Minister Shankar Prasad Koirala said he would do his best to promote furniture and furnishing industry. Responding to entrepreneurs´ call to relax customs duty on furniture and furnishing products, he said relaxation in customs duty alone won´t be of great help.
Krishna Lal Pradhan, president of Nepal Furniture and Furnishing Association, said the government should encourage domestic products by creating favorable business doing environment in the country. “Domestic productions can meet only about 40 percent of the demand in the market,” Pradhan said, adding, “Power crisis and lack of technical know-how is hindering the growth of this sector.”
Similarly, Surendra Kumar Sharada, senior vice-president of Federation of Furniture and Furnishing Entrepreneurs, said the main objective of the expo is to promote local products. “Local products are better in quality as compared to the imported ones because we use pure wood,” Sharada said, adding, “We are making preparation to introduce new furnishing technologies from abroad and conduct training for Nepali carpenters.”
The organizers are expecting a total of 150,000 visitors.
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