Footwear & Leather Fair 2013

8th to 10th   February 2013 – BMICH, Colombo
Final Press Release

“Footwear & Leather Fair 2013”   organized by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) in Association  with the Ministry of Industry & Commerce  , Industrial Development Board (IDB), Sri Lanka Footwear & Leather Products Manufacturers  Association  concluded successfully on the  10th February 2013 at the Sirimavo  Bandaranaike Memorial  Exhibition centre at BMICH.   This was the 5th of its kind, previous fairs been held in year 2007, 2009, 2010 & 2012.

The fair was ceremonially inaugurated by The Chief Guest Hon. Basil Rajapaksa Minister of Economic Development of Sri Lanka.  Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen, Minister of Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka and Hon. Douglas Devananda, Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development, were the guests of honor at the event. H.E Mahinda Rajapaksa The President of Democratic and Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka visited the fair on the 10th of February, 2013 on the invitation of Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen Minister of Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka.

The Fair consisted of 213 trade stalls displaying Footwear, Leather products & travel goods,    raw material, machinery, components and other related services. Local Manufacturers of  footwear , leather goods , travel goods ,components & accessories and  local and foreign importers of raw material  &  components  exhibited  their products at this fair .There was a  special  Display only area in the Hall A  organized for the exporters and  potential exporters. Sri Lanka’s top brands of Footwear & Leather Products were displayed at this fair. More than 20,000 people including importers, agents, suppliers manufacturers and the public visited the fair.

        

The main objective of this fair was to give recognition to the Industry locally and internationally. Identifying  most creative and skilled SME manufactures  to be developed as potential exporters, building  linkages  of SMEs with the large scale manufacturers,  create awareness  of the opportunities  available for  Industrialists  in the  international market are among the other  objectives .

Sri Lanka is renowned for its apparel Industry. The buyers of garments from Sri Lanka buy their leather goods from neighboring countries.  The EDB’s intention is to promote our Footwear & Leather Industry to attract these buyers to buy their footwear leather products also from Sri Lanka.