A six-day 'Asian Women Entrepreneurs Eid Festival 2005' begins today in Dhaka.

The Women Entrepreneurs Association of Bangladesh (WEAB) in association with the Pakistan High Commission in Bangladesh is organising the second version of the event.

Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Chaudhury is expected to inaugurate the event, sponsored by Bank Alfalah Ltd, at the National Shooting Federation Complex in Gulshan-1, where Commerce Ministry Adviser Barkat Ullah Bulu, and President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Mir Nasir Hossain will also be present.

More than 60 stalls, including 16 from Pakistan and eight from India, will display and sell mostly fashion wares, cosmetics, handicrafts, crafted ornaments and processed food items during the festival.

Women entrepreneurs from Nepal, Bhutan, Iran, Turkey and Indonesia will also display their products in the Eid festival, which will remain open from 11am to 10pm everyday to all with entry fees.

“The aim of the festival is to promote small and medium cottage industries run by women in the international arena and make opportunities for them to sell their products,” said Nasreen Awal Mintoo, president of WEAB and chairperson of Saarc Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC), at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday.

Roubina Taufiq Shah, commercial secretary of the High Commission of Pakistan in Bangladesh, Naaz Farhana Ahmed and Sajeda Minhaj Mukul, vice presidents of WEAB, and Majedur Rahman, head of Bank Alfalah in Bangladesh, also spoke at the press conference.