A four-day exposition of electric products and machinery began at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital yesterday.
The fair, known as ELECTROTECH Bangladesh, showcases electronic goods and merchandise, raw materials and capital machinery — both local and foreign.
Co-organised by Bangladesh Electrical Merchandise Manufacturers Association (BEMMA) and Ask Trade and Exhibitions Private Limited of India, it is the fourth international electric products and technology fair.
Sixty-seven companies from home and 26 from abroad are participating in the exhibition.
Advocate Lutful Hai, MP, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on commerce ministry, inaugurated the show.
Hai called for greater investment in the electric merchandise industries, highlighting the advantage of the low labour cost and growing domestic market in Bangladesh. It will also generate considerable employment opportunities, he added.
The burgeoning domestic market, now Tk 20,000 crore, has the potential of touching the Tk 50,000 crore mark in five years, Hai predicted.
“Electric products makers could tap into this budding market by combining skills with modern technology,” he added.
The parliamentarian also called for exploring ways to penetrate deeper into the international market for increased exports of local electric products, noting the cost advantage the country enjoys over its developed counterparts.
“Understanding the potential of the sector, the government has offered special privileges to the electric products makers in the 2009 export policy,” Hai said.
Md Jasim Uddin, acting president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, in his speech underscored the need to provide incentives to realise the potential of the sector.
Citing examples of other developing nations, he called for setting up special economic zones for the electric goods manufacturers and other associated sectors.
“Due to the highly integrated nature of this industry, electric goods assembling is closely associated with the manufacturing of steel, plastic and other materials,” he said.
Here comes the need for special economic zones or industrial cities exclusively for this sector to address its special needs, he said.
“Huge foreign investments can come to this sector, both from home and abroad through developing the backward linkages and the subcontracting,” he added.
Leaders from Bangladesh Electrical Merchandise Manufacturers Associa-tion and other organisers and participants were present on the occasion.
