The products on display at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre include, among others, bio-degradable shopping bags made from corn-starch, papers made from bamboo pulps, homegrown organic fertilisers, tissue culture derived orchids and low-cost agro-machinery.

Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia inaugurated the 'Agri-Invest 2003 Bangladesh,' with the participation of 50 government and private institutions from Denmark, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Norway, India, Switzerland, Italy, Britain and host Bangladesh.

On the sidelines of the show, a series of seminar are being held to highlight the importance of agro-industries in the economy, on issues of more bank financing, greater market accessibility and food safety.

Talking to The Daily Star at the venue yesterday, State Minister for Agriculture Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the agri-invest exposition would be made an annual event in Bangladesh and more incentives to local entrepreneurs given to set up agro-based industries.

The stall set up by Agrotech, local partner of world's largest bio-packaging company, Polar Gruppen of Norway, is one of the 68 stalls put up at the fair. Agrotech displayed how shopping bags made of corn-starch could be a solution to the post-polythene ban vacuum created in the market without causing harm to environment.

Standing in front of the stall that pulled a huge crowd, the administrative manager of Polar Gruppen said they produce 'biobag' (bags from corn-starch) in Norway with raw materials from Italian company, Novamont.

Since 1994, Polar has been marketing the 100 percent biodegradable biobag across Norway as well as many other European countries.

Environment Affairs Manager of Novamont, Francesco degli Innocenti said, "We've got the patent of the technology for preparing corn-starch to a shape from which one can make biobags and many other shopping, wrapping and packaging materials."

"In Bangladesh we like to advance step by step -- first you can import the finished product (biobag) from Norway, then you can import the raw materials from Italy and produce the bags in locally installed plants and lastly, you can get the technology of the raw material itself from us," said Innocenti.

Agrotech Chairman Rashed Iqbal told The Daily Star that a letter of intent was submitted to the Board of Investment (BoI) for local production of biobags.

A different range of other agro-based products and technologies also caught the visitors' eyes. Some of the other institutes which showcased their products prominently include, Alim Industries Limited, Agro-based Technology Development Programme, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute, BRAC, British American Tobacco, Capital Paper and Pulp Industries Ltd., Faruq Fertilisers Ltd., Ferdous Biotech, Hortex Foundation, Kazi Farms, Nestle Bangladesh, Royal Danish Embassy and Taiwan Trade Centre.

Besides, various nationalised commercial banks and foreign and local specilised banks also opened stalls at the exposition -- all proclaiming the recent cut in the interest rates on farm credit.

State Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam later said this exposition that winds up today should give enough impetus to local entrepreneurs to invest in agro-based industries. He expressed the government's readiness to give necessary support and incentives to, what he dubbed, was the present thrust sector of Bangladesh after the boom in the garment industry.

The state minister favoured further cuts in bank interest rates for the agriculture sector and underscored the need for greater market access.

At a seminar yesterday afternoon, Dr M Asaduzzaman of BIDS and an expert from UK, Dr Brian Smith, presented separate papers on 'Food Safety and Quality,' while Bangladesh Krishi Bank Managing Director Sajedur Rahman read out his paper on 'Overview of Financing in Agribusiness' and journalist Moazzem Hossain presented his paper on 'Media in Promoting Agro-Investment.'

Over the last two days, several other seminars on important agricultural issues also were held.