Bangladesh Economic & Infrastructure Development - Updates & Discussions

[Bilal9]

@Bilal9 bhai, please share news here....all these images makes it annoying to scroll down.

Accha - bhalo suggestion. But I will still post links to business videos as well as a few infra images that are helpful to understand progress of the projects.

Leather industry showing rising investment graph

Investment in leather goods and footwear has been rising significantly, thanks to more and more foreign and Bangladeshi investors pumping in money as production cost has gone up in competitor countries, say industry insiders.

Moreover, Bangladeshi entrepreneurs are investing in compliant factories to produce high-quality footwear that will eventually reduce the dependence on the import of leather goods, added industry insiders.

Mohammed Nazmul Hassan, vice president of the Leather Goods and Footwear Manufacturers' and Exporters' Association of Bangladesh (LFMEAB) and managing director of Leatherex Footwear Industries Limited told The Independent, “Founded in 2000, Leatherex is a 100 per cent export-oriented leather footwear industry in Bangladesh with a production capacity of 800,000 pairs of shoes and sandals yearly.”

Leatherex is operated under technical collaboration with Japan, Italy and Taiwan, he added.

Every year, 15–20 new leather product and footwear factories were being opened in the country, he noted.

Alliance Footwear and Leather Industry Ltd yearly exports 15 lakh pairs of shoes and 10,000 leather bags. An investor from Poland was planning invest Tk 15 crore in Bangladesh, as they were wrapping up their business in China due to high wage costs, said Mahbubur Rahman, manager of Alliance Footwear and Leather Industry Ltd.

China is still the biggest leather product sourcing country in the world, but if any buyer wants to buy leather footwear from China then 17 per cent import tax would have to be given to the Chinese government.

“We export footwear at zero per cent tariff rate and that’s perhaps another reason why foreign buyers are eager to come to invest in Bangladesh,” he said.

According to the data of the Leather Goods and Footwear Manufacturers' and Exporters' of Bangladesh (LFMEAB), wages have increased in competitor countries like China by 19 per cent, followed by Vietnam, 14 per cent; India, 13 per cent; and Indonesia, 30 per cent.

Because of higher wages, a lot of foreign leather products and footwear manufacturers have been compelled to shut down their businesses in those countries, said LFMEAB officials.

Saiful Islam, president, LFMEAB, said that physical investment was coming in. For instance, Pou Chen, a leading footwear manufacturer of Taiwan, had already started operating in Bangladesh.

VKC, a famous Indian footwear manufacturer, too, had come to Bangladesh, followed by the Farida Group, footwear and finished leather manufacturer, added Islam.

The LFMEAB informed that the spade work had already started and the factory, spread over 1,00,000 sq ft, was expected to open by March 2019. The factory would have the capacity to produce approximately 3,000 pairs of shoes a day.

ECM Footwear Ltd, (ECMFL) is a 100 per cent export-oriented leather shoe manufacturing venture based in Bangladesh.

It takes Tk 80–100 crore to set up a Ready Made Garment (RMG) factory but about Tk 25¬30 crore is needed to build a footwear factory. The RMG set-up is already there in the country but the footwear industry is still untapped, said Labik Kamal, director of ECM Footwear Ltd.

So, he felt, there was a huge opportunity for the footwear industry to grow.

The domestic demand of leather footwear and goods was worth about Tk 16,000 crore but 40 per cent of the demands are met by importing goods from abroad, said LFMEAB.

The leather footwear sector registered a steady positive growth of 4.54 per cent with USD 264.28 million in the first ten months (July–November) of the current financial year (FY2018–19) compared to USD 252.81 million during the same period in FY2017–18, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data.

Saiful Islam explained the reasons behind the steady growth and told The Independent that the footwear industry was maintaining growing trend because of three reasons—factories that produce footwear in Bangladesh were all environmentally compliant, meaning they conformed to environmental laws, regulations, standards.

Secondly, “We are highlighting the benefits of investment in this sector as well as the growth prospects in the longer term. As a result, in 2017–18, 20 new export-oriented footwear factories have come up and started operations in Bangladesh,” he added.

Finally, the labour cost in China was increasing. As a result, they were shifting to high-tech industries, prompting investors to move to a cost-competitive manufacturing base and Bangladesh was proving to be most lucrative option, he said.

Bangladesh exported footwear to the European Union (EU) member countries, Japan and North America.

About the challenges faced by the industry, he said, “There are a couple of challenges which need to be addressed such as reducing the lead time to 45 days, establishing more compliant footwear factories and long-term policy support.”

The leather sector was the country’s second largest export earner, mopping up over USD 1 billion and employing about one million people directly and indirectly, he added.

Competitive pricing, low labour cost and available raw material provided Bangladesh opportunities to grab the global leather market, he added.

“If long-term sustainable policy support is implemented, it's possible to achieve a growth level of 15- 20 per cent instead of 4.54 per cent,” he added.

Abdul Momen Bhuiyan, Sr. vice president of LFMEAB, too, said rising labour costs in China were prompting investors to move to cost-competitive manufacturing bases and Bangladesh was currently the most lucrative option.

He pointed to another reason, saying already Chinese investors had invested in around 15 new export-oriented footwear factories in the Chattogram Export Processing Zone (CEPZ), where they were manufacturing footwear and exporting their products abroad. This reflected the long-term growth prospects.

Bangladesh manufactured footwear for the renowned brands like Timberland shoes, Wolverine, Sterling shoes and many more brands, he informed.

“Finally, factories producing footwear in Bangladesh are environmentally compliant—they conform to environmental laws, regulations and standards,” said Abdul Momen Bhuiyan, who is also the Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of Apex Footwear Ltd.

Explaining the opportunities before this sector, Bangladesh Tanners’ Association (BTA) chairman Shaheen Ahmed said owing to the availability of raw materials, 350 million sq ft of leather is produced annually in Bangladesh. Of this amount, 20–25 per cent goes to meet the domestic demand, while the rest is exported.

The government considers "leather goods and footwear" as one of the main growth generators for the country that would help it to cross the middle-income threshold. It is now the country’s second largest export-earning industry.

According to LFMEAB, approximately, 220 tanneries, 2,500 footwear manufacturing units and 90 large firms make leather goods and footwear mainly for export.

Bangladesh exports leather goods and footwear mainly UAE, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, China, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain and Finland.

http://www.theindependentbd.com/pos...weClrh0pE5lveCaHts2Yyi1hN0musmLnKFa1dxmjes6KQ

I think local investors should concentrate on leather shoe industry because we should do immediate value addition on 100% of the 350 million sq ft of leather that is produced annually in Bangladesh and not 25% which we do now.

If we export tanned leather for others to make into shoes, then we are not doing ourselves any favors. In fact we should import more leather from surrounding countries like Pakistan and India and then make shoes with them (local value addition) because having the cheapest labor rates we have distinct advantage in this area compared to these countries as well as China, Vietnam, Indonesia etc.

When all local tanneries get transferred to Savar complex from Rayer Bazar (process has been agonizingly slow) then we can tan even more leather (source cheap untanned blue leather from overseas) and maybe double the present volume. With inbuilt environmental control processes (pollutant control) this will be great.

Pou Chen is the largest Taiwanese athletic shoe manufacturer for brands like NIke, Adidas, Reebok, Puma and other larger brands. Their coming here is a great sign that Bangladesh is now a recognized source of athletic shoe manufacturing. Youngone (Korean company in Dhaka and Chittagong EPZs) have been here for thirty years, they have huge athletic shoe manufacturing facilities in Chittagong area EPZ parks (Karnaphuli, Patenga etc.) They are also planning even larger facilities in Mir-Sarai EPZ which is being built.

I think Athletic shoes have lower margins and all raw material have to be imported. So local companies (like Apex etc.) should concentrate on dress shoes made of leather, which is freely available locally.

 

[Nilgiri]

@Bilal9 bhai, please share news here....all these images makes it annoying to scroll down.

How dare you! We all totally want to know whats exactly on the menu in obscure restaurants that cater to the 0.1%.

 

[Bilal9]

Here is a video presentation on the recently concluded BLISS (leather-goods industry) conference with comments on the China to Bangladesh manufacturing transfer.

https://www.facebook.com/

 

[Bilal9]

https://www.facebook.com/

 

[Mage]

Study: Shares in pharma, food, banks sought most by foreign investors in 2018
Niaz Mahmud

• Published at 10:20 pm January 20th, 2019

While above 95% of foreign portfolio investments were made in 18 sectors, five of these sectors attracted more than 60% of their total investment

Shares in pharmaceuticals, bank and food and allied sectors attracted foreign investors the most in the Dhaka Stock Exchange throughout 2018, as their portfolio investment accounted for 6.78% of total market capitalization as of November 30 last year.

While above 95% of foreign portfolio investments were made in 18 sectors, five of these sectors attracted more than 60% of their total investment, amounting to Tk 227,642 million during the period, according to a research by LankaBangla Finance Ltd.

Other sectors that appealed to foreign investors are: Telecommunications, Non-Bank Financial Institutions, Engineering, Textile, Fuel & Power, Cement, IT, General Insurance, Travel & Leisure, Mutual Funds, Tanneries, Life Insurance, Services and Real Estate, and Ceramics.

“Foreign investors preferred these select sectors as their corporate governance is good, earnings per share (EPS) attractive, and their business outlooks bright,” DSE Managing Director KAM Majedur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.

He said portfolio investments in the stock market would increase this year as no political uncertainty exists now after the just concluded inclusive national elections.

Focusing on company specific investment, the research said foreigners invested the most in DBH followed by Olympic, BRAC Bank, BX Pharma, Islami Bank, Renata, BSRM, Square Pharmaceuticals, BATBC, IDLC, and AB Bank.

The study found that the most lucrative sector for foreign investment in Bangladesh capital markets for the last year (up to November) was the Food & Allied sector. Foreign investors invested 16.18% of the sector's total market capitalization in the shares of listed companies in the food and allied sector.

They invested 13.91% of the pharmaceuticals sector’s market capitalization followed by banks with 9.22%, non-banking financial institutions 5.98%, and 3.59% in the fuel and power sector, the study added.

Focusing on company specific data, the study said foreign investments in Olympic were the highest during the given period, as they invested 41.13% of the total market capitalization of the company, followed by BRAC Bank, DBH, BX Pharma, Renata, and Square Pharmaceuticals.

The listed pharmaceutical and chemicals sector of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) companies are: ACI Limited, ACI Formulations, The ACME Laboratories, Active Fine Chemicals, Advent Pharma, AFC Agro Biotech, Ambee Pharmaceuticals, Beacon Pharmaceuticals, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Beximco Synthetics, Central Pharmaceuticals, Far Chemical Industries, Global Heavy Chemicals, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Bangladesh, the IBN SINA Pharmaceutical Industry, Indo-Bangla Pharmaceuticals, Imam Button Industries, JMI Syringes & Medical Devices, Keya Cosmetics, Kohinoor Chemicals, Libra Infusions, Marico Bangladesh, Orion Infusion, Orion Pharma, Pharma Aids, Reckitt Benckiser(Bd.), Renata Ltd, Salvo Chemical Industry, Silva Pharmaceuticals, Square Pharmaceuticals, and Wata Chemicals Limited.

According to the LankaBangla study, during most of 2018 the Bangladesh capital market experienced the lowest foreign turnover in the last three years. Total foreign turnover stood at $1,076.42 million as of November 30, 2018, registering a 13.75% fall year-on-year.

The lower turnover was due to declining foreign purchases and higher foreign sell-offs, resulting in 29.66% less net purchases year-on-year.

Experts said foreign investment in the country’s premier bourse remained positive for only three months (January, March and September) of the outgoing year as overseas investors faced a number of issues, including political uncertainties in an election year, depreciation of the Taka against the US dollar, and woes in the country’s banking sector.

“The market was slow in 2018 as it was an election year. The speed with which it was supposed to recover was not achieved. The country’s capital market has been able to stay at a level that has not experienced any crisis in the market," said DSE Managing Director KAM Majedur Rahman.

To increase international acceptability of the DSE, Dhaka Stock Exchange Brokers Association (DBA) President Shakil Rizvi told the Dhaka Tribune, “We will try to bring investment from a variety of foreign organizations. Many Chinese fund managers are positive about Bangladesh's overall economy and capital market.”

https://www.dhakatribune.com/busine...anks-sought-most-by-foreign-investors-in-2018

Largest private economic zone to be ready this year

Ahsan Habib
The country's largest private economic zone, Sirajganj Economic Zone Ltd (SEZL), may open for entrepreneurs within this year.

“We expect that we will be able to allot the plots of the zone within December this year or the first half of next year at maximum,” said the zone's director, Sheikh Monowar Hossain.

The zone is expected to create employment opportunities for five lakh people and bring in over $2 billion in investments. Its architectural layout designates space for 400 industries.

Hossain said the SEZL spent Tk 350 crore to acquire 1,035.93 acres of land, which was now being readied and levelled with sand.

Its physical infrastructure is also being developed, one being through the ongoing construction of a jetty.

Other facilities include dormitories and housing of five-star or equivalent standards for workers, one-stop administrative and logistic amenities, health and day care centres and technical institutions.

The zone will have its own means of sourcing water and will generate steam through a dedicated plant. It will very soon start setting up a 300-MW power plant for uninterrupted electricity supply while availing natural gas from the government.

The SEZL will dispose of its industrial waste through a common effluent treatment plant (CETP) characterised by zero discharge.

The construction of these facilities will start gradually after work on the power plant begins, said the zone's general manager, Md Shahidur Rahman.

He said the economic zone has already caught the attention of some foreign investors from China, South Korea, Japan, Italy and the US, while some local investors also expressed interest to set up factories, mostly textile.

Entrepreneurs can purchase industrial plots or take lease of the land as well as ready factories. Prices are yet to be fixed, Rahman added.

The zone's development cost, minus the power and steam plants and the CETP, is projected to be about Tk 2,800 crore. It is being borne by a consortium of nine companies and two businesspersons, Mohammad Kamruzzaman and Ehsan Habib.

The companies are Knit Asia, Rising Holdings, Mahmud Fashion, Ratul Knitwear, SM Holdings, Paragon Feed, Textown, Manami Fashions and Change Bangladesh.

They got the final licence from the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (Beza) on October 4, 2018.

“It's a dream project towards the northern part of Bangladesh,” said Paban Chowdhury, executive chairman of the Beza.

It is exceptional in the sense that the private sector has been provided the opportunity by the government to prove their mettle in setting up a large economic zone, he said.

“I believe it will ramp up the rural economy of northern Bangladesh,” he added.

Apart from road and rail connectivity, the zone has access to waterways for it lies on the banks of the river Jamuna. Sirajganj is the gateway to northern Bangladesh.

Chowdhury said the connectivity would be a big advantage for the zone's entrepreneurs. He, however, cited a challenge: the rehabilitation of people whose land had been acquired.

Monowar Hossain said they were working to this end, creating an ideal village where land, housing and other facilities like urban areas would be provided. “So, it will not be a problem at all,” he said.

https://www.thedailystar.net/busine...t-private-economic-zone-be-ready-year-1690039

 

[Bilal9]

Here is a video for the Sirajganj Economic Zone. I have to admit, this is one spectacular MOTHER of a project, IF they can pull it off.

The reason for locating it on the banks of the Jamuna on the other side of Bangabandhu bridge is because of the riverine container shipping facility planned there (4:47 on the video).

https://www.dhakatribune.com/busine...license-awarded-to-consortium-of-11-companies

 

[Mage]

BD FDI flow up despite global decline in 2018
China biggest contributor
Asjadul Kibria | Published: January 22, 2019 09:14:32

The flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country recorded substantial rise in 2018 with China becoming the top contributor.

The development came in contrast to the decline in global inflow of FDI last year, according a report of the UNCTAD.

Net inflow of FDI into the country, according to the Bangladesh Bank data, was $2.26 billion during the January-September period of 2018. The figure represented a 51.62 per cent increase in FDI inflow over that of corresponding period of 2017. A total of $1.49 billion FDI flowed into the country during the first nine months of 2017.


In fact, the nine-month FDI in 2018 surpassed total FDI worth $2.15 billion in 2017.

China became the top source of FDI in Bangladesh as net inflow of FDI from the second largest economy of the world reached $812.15 billion in the first nine months of 2018 due to big Chinese investment in the power sector.

Investment Trend Monitor, released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Monday, estimated that global FDI inflow declined 17 per cent to $1.19 trillion in 2018 from $1.47 trillion in 2017.

Though the figure of 2018 is based on a preliminary estimation, it is likely to stay close to it at the final count which will be released in the middle of the year.

Inflow of global FDI was $1.98 trillion in 2015 which declined to $1.86 trillion in 2016.

"The third consecutive drop brings the FDI inflow back to the low point reached after the global financial crisis," said the UNCTAD report.

"The decline was concentrated in developed countries where FDI inflow fell by 40 per cent to an estimated US$451 billion mainly due to large repatriations of accumulated foreign earnings by the United States multinational enterprises (MNEs) following tax reforms," it added.

It is also estimated that FDI flow into developed economies last year was the lowest since 2004.

In contrast, inflow of FDI into developing economies increased by 3.0 per cent to $694 billion and the share of these economies in global FDI reached 58 per cent last year.

Bangladesh is an example of developing nations' robust FDI inflow past year, though the country still gets a tinny amount of foreign investment.

During the period under review, gross inflow of FDI also stood at $2.93 billion while the amount of disinvestment was $0.67 billion, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics.

Disinvestment includes capital repatriation, reverse investments, loans given to parent firms and repayments of intra-company loans to parent firms of the multinational companies operating here.

asjadulk@gmail.com

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/economy/bd-fdi-flow-up-despite-global-decline-in-2018-1548126872

 

[Bilal9]

Bangladesh Startup News

Bangladesh’s First Angel Investment Network Bangladesh Angels Launches In Dhaka

Future Startup Insight
October 6, 2018


Bangladesh Angels, Bangladesh’s first angel investing network, has officially launched its operation in Dhaka. The platform aims to bring together the leaders in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem and global partners and nurture the innovation and entrepreneurship in Bangladesh by connecting startups to both local and global investors.

The platform aims to provide three supports to startups related to raising investment: 1) fundraising – helping founders access to capital 2) advisory – pre and post-investment support to startups and 3) network – build and give startups access to the largest network of angel investors in Bangladesh

From Bangladesh Angels website:

With an aim to fill the early-stage financing gap and provide advisory support to startups, the network engages in multiple activities towards this end. Our members include a blend of individual investors, family offices, corporate and global investors. The network looks to invest in deals between the range of Taka 80 Lakhs to 5 Crores, across all sectors. In addition to funding, the network will also provide high quality mentoring and access to networks and strategic support to the portfolio companies.

This is a developing story, we will be updating with further information soon.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gaze Technology Inc. – Transforming Dhaka into an AI City

Gaze Technology Inc. is the first Bangladeshi deep learning and computer vision solutions startup that provides intelligent video analytics and real-time tracking for applications like security surveillance, access control and more.”

Co-Founder & CEO, Shehzad Noor Taus Priyo, first started working in deep learning at IBM where he was listed as the inventor of a patent pending by IBM Research in Obstacle Avoidance for Self-driving Cars. He later joined Nvidia to work in deep learning and computer vision for AI city solutions. It did not take him long to realize the huge potential of this technology and he quickly discussed this with two of his childhood friends and fellow aspiring entrepreneurs Motasim Bir Rahman (Co-Founder & COO) and Fahad Bin Faruque (Co-Founder & CBO), who were both living in Vancouver, Canada at the time.

The three teamed up last summer in Vancouver and envisioned on transforming Dhaka into an AI city using state-of-the-art computer vision solutions. Thus, Gaze Technology Inc. was formed.

Taken aback at their vision and commitment, Matt Saba, a former partner at Summit Ventures and serial entrepreneur joined them in the difficult search for Product-Market Fit. Matt opted to relocate from Vancouver to Dhaka for a 3-month sprint at finding the traction.

There are nearly 21,000 CCTV cameras currently operated by the government in Bangladesh as of December 2017 producing over 1.2 million minutes of video data. However, this vast amount of data is often not utilized due to the lack of technology existing in the market currently. One has to manually go through the entire footage in order to detect and track any threats or suspicions and match it with an existing data-set to confirm their hypothesis. This process is extremely inefficient and time-consuming and does not allow one to react to the situation immediately.

So we have a question to ask ourselves. Do the existing security systems truly ensure 100% safety? Gaze Technology Inc. makes video surveillance smart, giving brains to cameras using enhanced face recognition, vehicle tracking, and real-time video analysis. This technology allows cameras to understand the situation and respond to it, offering much better security in times of threat and violations of law such as intruders in a secured premise, vehicles violating traffic laws, children lost in crowded areas and more.

Source: Startup Now

 

[Mage]

Gaze Technology Inc. – Transforming Dhaka into an AI City

I have read about this Gaze Technology. I think they have good potential.

 

[Bilal9]

I have read about this Gaze Technology. I think they have good potential.

They may have a track record already - and a ready market for their product locally. Quite timely I'd say...

 

[Mage]

Light engineering sees emerging business hub
Posted By: daily industryon: January 22, 2019In: Bangladesh, Power, Energy and DevelopmentNo Comments
Email

Lack of infrastructure and modern equipment, fund constraints and absence of policy are the major barriers that are hindering the growth of country’s light engineering industries

Abu Sazzad: Bangladesh has the ability to be the emerging light engineering business hub, if the government ensures proper policy support. Apart from this, huge investment is needed for the further flourishment of the sector, according to the industry insiders.
The government has set the export target amounting at US$169.55 million from light engineering sector during the first half (July to December) of the ongoing fiscal 2018-19 but the sector earned $172.08 million. The export growth is 1.49 percent. The total fiscal target is $352 million. Country achieved $355.26 million export earnings from light engineering sector, according to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data.
Out of the engineering products, stainless steel ware export increased 86.01 percent from the target, followed by 36.53 for engineering products, 62.69 percent for engineering equipments, and 10.25 percent for electronic product.
The Light Engineering Sector (LES) that draws the least attention of the policymakers has emerged as a potential cost cutting sector by producing at least 50 percent substitutes of imported items in the country, said sources. This important sub-sector is now providing critical support to industrial, agricultural and construction sectors by manufacturing a wide range of spare parts, castings, moulds and dices, oil and gas pipeline fittings and light machinery, as well as repairing those, they said.
Sector players claim that electrical goods like switch, socket, light shed, channel, cables and electrical fans, generator, which are manufactured by the LES are now meeting 48 percent to 52 percent of the country’s demands, which was earlier met through import.

Engineering sector is the mother of all sectors because it provides backup support to cement, paper, jute, textile, sugar, food processing, railway, shipping, garments capital machineries by repairing and maintaining those.

A recent study conducted by International Finance Corporation (IFC) in partnership with UK Department for International Development and Norwegian government shows that LES has in its employment 600,000 people involved in 50,000 micro enterprises and 10,000 Small and Medium Enterprises.
Another study conducted by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology however, estimates that LES comprises of around 40,000 enterprises employing around 800,000 people.

Light engineering factories are located in Gazipur, Kishorganj, Dhaka, Chattogram, Narayangonj, Bogra, and other places across the country.

Lack of infrastructure, fund constraints and absence of policy are the major barriers that are hindering the growth of the country’s light engineering industries, claimed the experts.

Despite enormous scope of grabbing the international market, the country fails to fetch expected level of foreign currencies by exporting light engineering products. Their quality as well as productivity could not be raised up to the global standards due to absence of modern technology, technical know-how, required machinery, product design and research, according to Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI).
The BFTI conducted an exclusive research titled “The sector-based need assessment of business promotion council- Light Engineering sector.
The study was aimed at assessing the needs of the sub-sector of the light engineering industries, identifying the challenges and scope of technology transfer to enhance the productivity.
Through the research, the commerce ministry also tried to find out the reasons why the sector failed to increase market share at home and abroad and also turn Bangladesh into an attractive destination for the industry.
The country’s light engineering sector has a strong backward linkage, as most of the raw materials come from ship scraps. Local ship breaking industries meet 90 percent of the demand for raw materials, according to the Bangladesh Engineering Industry Owners’ Association (BEIOA) – a leading association of the sector.
Besides lack of technical know-how and latest technology, the study also identified some other causes like absence of environment friendly production facilities, and lack of uninterrupted energy supply.
BFTI submitted the report to the commerce ministry recently.
The research findings show, most of the light engineering industries are small and medium enterprises and are scattered in 18 districts. The sector requires separate industrial plots. But as per the rules and regulations of the special economic zones, these industries cannot be accommodated there.
Sector leaders demand separate industrial zone with special regulations and low fees for the industry. The zone should be developed as a centre with better technologies, logistics and others necessary facilities, where they can operate manufacturing operations in a systematic approach.
Another major challenge is non-availability of easy access to finance for the sector investors. BEIOA president said to the Daily Industry that the conditions for finance are so stringent that sometimes financing is inaccessible for the small entrepreneurs.
Because of lack of modern machinery and latest technologies, the small and medium entrepreneurs of the sector are operating their units with hand-operated to semi-automated machinery, for which they stay far behind the global manufacturers in terms of competitiveness.
Most of the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs are still using manual technologies and as a result production capacity and quality of products are low in many cases. In many cases manual products are not homogeneous also, he mentioned.
As a result, the industry is not able to meet the production requirements for local and international markets and is also losing export competitiveness. So, modern technologies and machinery are required to meet the market demand.
According to the research, the sector is facing challenges as a SME in branding and promotional activities in local and international markets, the industry insiders said, suggesting the policy people for attending fairs and other promotional activities in districts level.
The sector usually is referred as a small and medium enterprise (SME) with comparatively lower investment base and the entrepreneurs should be made aware about regulations like VAT calculation and others.
Bangladesh Engineering Industry Owners’ Association (BEIOA) President Md. Abdur Razzaque said many of the industry owners are small businesses, who are not aware about rules, regulations and norms of doing business.
At the end of the day, the light engineering sector is known as the mother of the heavy industries, so that they require all types of government policies support, he said.
The research team also made some specific recommendations that include establishment of a Common Facility Center (CFE) at Dholaikhal in Dhaka with the facilities of metal testing, CNC training and heat treatment for cluster engineering firms, setting up a raw material warehouse, ensure good credit environment to meet their needs.
Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and former president of BGMEA said, the light engineering sector is struggling from the very beginning. They are contributing a lot to the country’s economy.
The sector played the best performance as SME to maintain the economic stability during the recent global recession. But they are not getting expected success due to lack of modern technology and government policy support includes financing, he said.
He suggested the government for taking special care of the light engineering sector for enhancing export earnings and improvement of the country’s’ industrial future.

According to the sector leaders, this sector now contributes 2 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and can play a significant role in the economy. The local market size of approximately Tk. 30,000 crore and the light engineering industry’s current turnover can be increased 10-12 times if the sector gets government support.

Abdur Razzaque said light engineering was an untapped field in Bangladesh. “Its global market size is nearly USD 6 trillion. If we are unable to modernise our engineering factories within a short time, then sophisticated foreign products would dominate the domestic market within cheaper prices,” he added.

Access to finance and technological upgrading are challenges that should be addressed. Technological improvement will be possible once we get the land because only then will we be able to import machinery from abroad, he said.
According to BEIOA, the light engineering industry of Bangladesh is presently producing nearly 3,900 types of quality machinery, spares and accessories. These include automobile spare parts, railway engine and rail line spare parts, bicycle and cycle rickshaw, machine tools, jute and textiles machines and spare parts, chemical industry machines and spare parts, sugar and food industry machines and spare parts, engineering and metal industry spare parts, ship industry spare parts, and agricultural machine accessories and spare parts.

Bangladesh imported light-quality engineering products from India, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and China, said Razzaque.
Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) said that the various types of industries were growing fast in the country, so, it was difficult to meet the existing demand or requirements of new machinery with local capital. Access to finance is a big factor to flourish the light engineering sector, he added.

http://www.dailyindustry.news/light-engineering-sees-emerging-business-hub/

 

[Bilal9]

Karnaphuli tunnel technology and status update...

Well - looks like someone (maybe the uploader) pulled the video. I saw it however.

 

[Bilal9]

Padma Bridge Update:

Another span added to Padma bridge Today (January 23, 2019) this span of gray 'F-6' is placed between the 36th and 37th pillars of Jazira in the morning. Photo: Star

The sixth span is 150 Metres long, as are the others, which brings completion up to 900 Metres so far. The length of the total bridge is 6.15 KM.

 

[Bilal9]

 

[Bilal9]

Belarussian construction machinery company Amkodor has set up an assembly facility locally to assemble their smaller sized range of construction machinery. I like the mini Steer Loaders. Cute! The range looks quite modern. If local tech support is present, then these may turn out to be pretty popular. I have already seen Chinese construction machinery brands to be quite popular locally in the heavier end of the market (SANY being the most popular).