70pc Japanese firms in Bangladesh want to expand business

About 70 per cent of Japanese companies in Bangladesh wanted to expand their business in the next one to two years as their confidence had improved, said the Japan External Trade Organisation country representative in Dhaka D Arai on Sunday.
‘About 270 Japanese companies are operating their businesses in Bangladesh. Even after the Holey Artisan incident in 2016, no single Japanese company withdrew businesses from the country,’ said the JETRO country representative in Dhaka at a press conference held at the JETRO office in the capital.
The Japan Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised the press conference titled ‘Current Trend of Japanese Companies in Bangladesh’.
D Arai, also the JBCCI president, said the Japanese investors were looking for an alternative destination like Bangladesh, pulling back their investments from China for the high wages and production cost.
He said the Japanese investors were showing keen interest to invest in Bangladesh as the wages in the country was the lowest among the Asian and Oceania countries as well as one with the lowest production costs in the region.
‘Garment sector wages of workers in China is four times higher than in Bangladesh. Japan, thus, wants to shift its companies to other countries, including Bangladesh,’ he added.
He said nearly 70 per cent of local employees would be increased in Japanese companies next year as the government had taken various initiatives to increase the number of skilled manpower.
D Arai informed that the development of Japanese EZ in Araihazar was likely to be complete within 2020 as the land acquisition had already been finished.
He said the Japanese investors were showing keen interest to invest in various sectors, including information technology and infrastructure.
He also identified some risk and problems which were creating barriers in the way of expanding businesses in Bangladesh.
The risk and problems included lack of infrastructure, weakness of governance and compliance, taxation system and lack of skilled workforce.
The JETRO country representative urged the authorities concerned to take necessary steps for removing the risks in investment and to make the country more investment friendly.
He also called upon the government to take more steps to reduce the freight time at the seaport or airport as it was higher than in other Asian and Oceania countries.
Among other, the JBCCI vice-president Shariful Alam, director Masud Karim, adviser Akhtaruzzaman and honorary executive director AKM Moazzem Hussain were present.
Shariful Alam said the Japanese investment in Bangladesh was worth around $326 million until June of this year and the Japanese ODA was about $12 billion for Bangladesh while $7 billion had already been disbursed.
He believed the Japanese government was continuing its contribution for Bangladesh’s development and many Japanese companies would also come to set up businesses in the country.
Akhtaruzzaman said if there was a good election, many Japanese companies would come to invest in the country.
Source: http://www.newagebd.net

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