Team Pamex kicked off the International Outreach Program in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 12 October 2019. The team held an introductory meet and press conference on the side-lines of Printech Bangladesh 2019, which saw significant participation by Indian manufacturers.
More than 75 exhibitors and visitors, along with media personnel, attended the meet. Islam, general secretary of the Printing Industries Association of Bangladesh, gave the welcome note. Kamal Chopra, chairman of Pamex, gave a presentation and spoke about what printers could expect at the Pamex exhibition, scheduled from 6 to 9 January 2020 at BEC, Mumbai.
The presentation was followed by a Q&A session. Commenting on the presence of a delegation of printers from Bangladesh at Pamex 2020, Islam promised that more than 40 printers would be visiting the show in Mumbai. Speaking about the WPCF conference in Dhaka, Chopra said that the printers of the region were very keen to attend the event. The need to look to the future in printing is growing across the world and especially in the Indian subcontinent. Hence, the topic ‘Future Printing: Brainstorming with World Leader’ resonated very well with the audience.
“We are pleased with the response we got in Dhaka. With the International Outreach Program, we planned to reach the printers directly. We have started on the right note. Next, we head to Nepal with a Print Odyssey planned across the country and also the one-day conference and exhibition. With more than 275 exhibitors already on board, Pamex 2020 is shaping quite well,” Chopra said.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
