COTABATO CITY – Some 75 booths featuring local goods would highlight the opening on Friday of the month-long Ramadan Trade Fair at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) compound in this city.
The Ramadan is expected to start on May 15, depending on the sighting of the new crescent moon according to the Islamic lunar calendar, and end on June 15 through Eid’l Fitr, the celebration marking the culmination of the fasting period.
Twenty of the booths will be devoted to hosting the businesses of those who are still displaced by last year’s conflict in Marawi City.
Their booths will be subsidized by the Office of the Regional Governor (ORG) along with food and accommodation during their stay in Cotabato City throughout the trade fair.
“We will be giving them grants of Php30,000 for capital and Php10,000 for the tools they will be needing as they take their business here to Cotabato City for the Ramadhan fair,” said ORG chief of staff Nhorkhalila Mae Mambuay-Campong.
The fair, which would formally open at 4:00 p.m. Friday, will feature both food and non-food products, geared towards endorsing and renewing interest in the local goods available across the region. According to the Department of Trade and Industry-ARMM, a number of ARMM line agencies would also be featured in the fair.
The Department of Agrarian Reform-ARMM will have a booth presenting products from the region’s agrarian reform beneficiaries, while the Department of Science and Technology-ARMM booth will item products that were produced and packaged with the help of the agency.
Meanwhile, the regional Department of Health will offer free medical services in one of the booths, while the Department of Tourism – ARMM will feature local tourism sites in an exhibit housed in another booth.
Also, the trade fair will feature a nightly program that includes discussions covering a wide range of Islamic topics, with different ARMM line agencies scheduled to take charge of the program every right. (Noel Punzalan/PNA)
