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Exclusive Interview

Light engineering is the mother organization of industrialization

BEIOA Prez tells

Published : Monday, 20 January, 2025 at 12:00 AM  Count : 174
Jibon Islam
Light Engineering is the 'mother' organization of industrialization. It manufactures machinery including parts for various types of industrial products such as motor vehicles, aircrafts, watercrafts and all types of machineries - big or small. This sector is expanding rapidly as the country's industrializations picks up.

In Bangladesh it is the backbone of industries. This sector is making an important contribution to industrialization in Bangladesh, said Md. Abdur Razzaque, President of Bangladesh Engineering Industry Owners Association (BEIOA) in an interview with The Daily Observer on last Tuesday.

He said the light engineering sector manufactures machinery and parts for various types of industrial products such as motor vehicles, aircrafts, watercrafts and all types of machineries - big or small. This sector is expanding rapidly as the country's industrializations picks up.

It is also creating millions of employment contributing to the country's socio-economic development. The industry leader said initially the light engineering sector made its debut in the country with the help of handful of people after independence.

At that time, although few machineries and spare parts were manufactured at some engineering workshop, this sector mainly did repairing work. Starting from that repairing work, an average of about 50,000 light engineering factories so far developed in the country.

Razzaque said small and light engineering industries now employ more than 1.2 million people in more than 50,000 factories. This sector contributes over 3 percent of the country's GDP and supply machineries and spare-parts to domestic industry.

Light engineering products are also exported now earning an average of about $1 billion every year. With the government support and cooperation exports earnings are poised to further increase every year.

To a question, he said, the market value for machineries and spare- parts produced in the country's light engineering sector is about Tk 30,000 crore now in a global market worth about $7 trillion.

Only 20 percent demand of the country's light engineering products can be met at this moment from domestic light engineering sector; the remaining machineries and spare-parts have to be imported, he said.

He said, the previous government had provided various facilities for the development of light engineering sector. Moreover, it provided 15 percent incentives for exports. That is why the light engineering sector gradually expanded in the past.

Meanwhile, the number of factories and their production has increased. As a result, in addition to meeting the country's domestic needs, exports of light engineering products also increased.

The industry leader also said that the government has recognized the SME sector and the sectoral policy as a priority sector along with industrial policy and export of light engineering products. In addition, it has prepared a policy namely 'Light Engineering Industry Development Policy 2022' for comprehensive growth of this sector This policy has made an important contribution to the spread of the light engineering sector.

To a question Md. Abdur Razzaque said light engineering sector has been given the opportunity to raise capital from the stock market as 'informal sector.' Despite of that this sector is yet to make a breakthrough in the stock market.

He said in many cases, it has not been possible to properly organize this sector. Exports of light engineering goods have increased in the past 10 years. In some years, 800 to 900 million dollars worth of goods or even more were exported.

However despite being an informal sector, it has not been possible to create the desired employment in 10 years. Absence of compliant industrial zones is blamed for failure of bringing this sector out of the informal sector This absence must be overcome and compliant industrial zones must be established. Along with this, fair and beautiful industrial environment must be created; planned industrial parks must be set up, he emphasized.

He said it is not possible to industrialize with money from banks at high interest rates. In this situation, long-term project loans must be provided on easy terms. If the government addresses these issues - or cooperates in finding solutions, the development of this sector will increase at a faster pace.

Razzaque said technology upgradation must continue in light engineering sector to rapidly expand its outreach. Therefore skilled workforce must be developed through training. More modern, more advanced technologies must be used in this sector to produce world-class products. Knowledge must be acquired for that purpose. A trained workforce is especially needed.

He said the government cooperation in marketing of light engineering goods, including policy support, is especially needed.

Otherwise, it is not possible to adopt an integrated and comprehensive action plan and implement it.

He said if the government provides overall support to this sector, it will not only meet the needs of the domestic industry; rather, it will be possible to earn a lot of foreign currency by producing various types of machines and spare parts for exports.

He said if the government provides overall support, this sector will play an important role in expanding the domestic industry and saving foreign currencies by reducing imports.


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