Bangladesh Govt looks to provide light engineering a leg up
The federal government has taken an initiative to formulate policy to market and develop engineering industries, create jobs and expand the country's professional base.
The Business Promotion Council, an agency under the commerce ministry, and the Bangladesh Engineering Industry Owners Association (BEIOA), have jointly prepared a draft policy.
The policy-presented at a gathering of the stakeholders of the commerce ministry in Dhaka on Sunday-will be submitted to the industries ministry following the addition of the recommendations.
The draft policy targets increasing the contribution of industries to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) to 40 per cent by 2025 by developing light engineering industries.
It focuses on strengthening the sector by enhancing infrastructure, enhancing technology and skills, and diversifying products to handle the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.
The focus may also be given on the development of vendors of potential sectors such as for example motorcycle, bicycle, automobile, and heavy machinery, the draft policy said.
"It is very good news for us. This is a timely initiative," said BEIOA President Abdur Razzak.
"The sector will flourish if the policy is implemented through disciplined compliance. We hope it would be best for the sector."
There is no policy for the light engineering sector in Bangladesh, although it plays a vital role in the economy.
Some 50,000 light engineering industries are operating in the united states, making $8.2 billion worth of products each year.
Businesses operating in foundry, manufacturing, repair and maintenance sub-sectors produce 10,000 types of light engineering products, according to a paper of the BEIOA.
"It could be a great help for the sector if a fresh policy is developed because every policy helps the government understand what has to be done for the development of any specific sector," said Enayet Hossain Chowdhury, a director of the Bangladesh Electrical Merchandise Manufacturers' Association.
Light engineering is among the important sub-sectors of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which create jobs and help the economy post higher growth.
"Local light engineering products have huge demand in the home and abroad. It is possible to export the products after meeting the domestic demand," Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said at the meeting of the stakeholders.
"The federal government has taken special initiatives to make the sector export-oriented, and the policy is being formulated considering the changes that are occurring due to the fourth commercial revolution."
There are ample occupations in the light engineering sector. And the export market will expand with the production of new and diversified products, he said.
Despite being truly a potential sector, the light engineering industry could not flourish due to some bottlenecks, said Kazi Iqbal, a senior research fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
He said the issues the light engineering sector were facing at this time had come up in a variety of discussions.
"Light engineering is probably the important SME clusters that deserves more focus from the federal government. Equal attention ought to be given to every business in the sector regardless of their size and earnings."
In his budget speech on June 3, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed a 10-year tax exemption to establish light engineering factories to market local manufacturing.
Factories that will start commercial production between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2030, will enjoy the exemption.
"We are looking at the problem positively. We believe this will start a new opportunity for investment in this sector," said Razzak.
