Over 0.2 million people belonging to all walks of life, including politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, business women and young entrepreneurs visited a wide-range 200 stalls during the three-day Second Expo Lahore at Expo Centre. The Lahore Shopping Festival is a joint initiative of the Punjab Government and Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The weeklong Lahore Shopping Festival, concluded on Sunday, had in its fold a number of events that generated economic activity worth millions of rupees. The big success of the Lahore Shopping Festival makes the point that the private sector has both the ability and the potential to bring the country out of economic mire. Though the visitors showed keen interest in all the products put on display at the Second Expo Lahore but Indonesian, Jordanian, Indian and Czech Republic products were of great attraction for the visitors.
LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Senior Vice President Kashif Younis Meher, Vice President Saeeda Nazar, Convere LSF Sheikh Mohammad Arshad addressed the concluding ceremony.
Sheikh said the Lahore Shopping Festival was aimed at promoting economic activities in the Province of Punjab and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has achieved the goal in a winsome manner. He said that response of the Lahoris was marvelous and very encouraging. He said the Punjab government, particularly Shahbaz Sharif had extended matchless cooperation for the Lahore Shopping Festival that would go a long way and yield desired results. He said the LCCI would continue to arrange such events and would play its best role to get economy back on the rail. He also paid rich tributes to the sponsor for making this event successful. Sheikh said the Lahore Shopping Festival was designed to ensure the participation of all segments of the society. He said the LSF was started with a Qiraat Competition where the ulema were the judges and a large number of professional and non-professional Qaris took part in it. While the second event was polo match which ensured the participation of sportsmen.
The third event was a cricket tournament among all the cricket teams of the leading trade and industrial associations of the City. He said thousands of cricket lovers watched this two-day gala and it was appreciated by all. This tournament was won by the team of Pakistan Hardware and Merchants Association by beating the cricket team of Shah Alam Market in a tough and interesting competition.
Sheikh said the first of its kind and unique photography competition with the name Morning in Lahore provided an opportunity to the photography student to show their skills. It was such a successful function that as many as 300 students belonging to all the leading institutions of the town took part in it. He said the very objective of the Business Plan Competition was sharpen the entrepreneurial skills of the students and almost all the government and private universities took part in it that continued for almost half of the day.
Sheikh said Business Walk, Vintage car, Motocycle rallies, wrestling and Job Fair were designed to involve the remaining segments of the society while the Fashion Show and the Punjab Cultural night were aimed at highlighting the culture of this part of the country.
About the three-day Second Expo Lahore, the LCCI president said it had not only created a business of millions of rupees but it has also brought into the lime light the real potential of the country. At the end of LSF concluding ceremony, a Cultural Show was held which was appreciated by the participants of the exhibition.
