Bangladesh can substantially foster growth of furniture export by innovative product design, said Peter Palesch, Country Director of German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) Bangladesh, on Thursday.

He said Bangladesh is lagging behind other countries in furniture export because it lacks knowledge of design. “Without innovative designs, local companies cannot make their places in the export arenas,” he observed.

Palesch was speaking at an award-giving ceremony of the first-ever product design competition styled “Hatil Furniture Design Competition-2004” at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre. Furniture export currently fetches Tk 15 crore a year for Bangladesh.

Palesch mentioned that the long experience of GTZ in private sector promotion has proven that sustainable private sector development requires social responsibility and fulfilment of standards as well. Sirajul Islam, additional secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, was the guest of honour at the programme. KM Akhter Hossain, Chairman of Furniture Manufactures Association, Franz Bauer, Team Leader of the design component of GTZ’s Promotion of Private Sector Programme, and Atif Dewan Rashid, DTC Executive Director also spoke on the occasion.

Six novices received awards for their performance at the competition, which was financed by Hatil Complex Ltd and organised in cooperation with Design and Technology Centre (DTC).

The competition was supported by GTZ, an implementing agency of development activities of the German government. The DTC has been set-up by the Promotion of Private Sector Programme of GTZ in Bangladesh together with representative private sector enterprises.

Designers were awarded in living room, bedroom, dinning room and doors categories. As many as 359 participants registered for the competition, of which 84 were finally fulfilled the judgment criteria.

Saimum Kabir, Dilruba Ferdous Shuvra and Tanjina Khan got prizes in the living room category, Shoumen Kanti Barua in the bedroom category and Md Kabir Hasan Mukul in the dinning room category. The ideas of Fariaz Mahmud in the door category received special recognition.

Hatil Complex manufactured three sofa-sets, a bed and a door from the designs of the participants and these are being showcased at the ongoing Second National Furniture Fair – 2005.

The seven-member jury board for the competition is composed of artist and head of Crafts Department at the Institute of Fine Arts Abdus Sakoor, graphic designer AM Saadullah, managing director of Hatil Complex Ltd Selim H Rahman, architect Mazharul Islam, architect Nahas Khalil, German industrial designer Franz Bauer and senior designer of DTC Chandra Shekhar Saha.

The fair will remain open from 10:00am to 10:00pm until Saturday.