Motorcycle assembling in Bangladesh by Honda Motor Company, Japan’s biggest motorbike manufacturer, will be delayed mainly because of ongoing political turmoil in the country, officials of Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation said. They said that Honda authorities could not bring parts and other raw materials into Bangladesh for starting assembling activities due to frequent spells of strikes, hartals and other violent political programmes.
‘Under the circumstances, the board of directors of Bangladesh Honda Private Ltd will meet on Monday to decide the next course of actions as the joint venture company missed more than one deadline set for starting motorbike assembling,’ Shaik Md Mobarak Hossain, a director of the company, told New Age on Thursday.
He said that a portion of parts and other equipment had already been brought into the country from India and Thailand but the activities remained suspended due to current political situation.
Mobarak, also a director, planning and development of BSEC, said that the board meeting to be held next week might fix a probable deadline for commencing assembling activities.
Officials said that in September 2012, BSEC and Honda Motor Company had signed an agreement to establish a joint venture to initially assemble and later manufacture motorcycles in Bangladesh by the end of December last year.
The company, BHPL, established under the agreement failed to start assembling activities till now.
The BHPL failed to go into operation by earlier deadlines, first in December, then in March to June, due
to legal and procedural delay and in June, it finalised a schedule to commence business operation by October.
‘The latest deadline failed because of political turmoil prevailing in the country,’ Mobarak said.
In earlier board meetings, the company decided to assemble primarily 80cc, 100cc and 125cc motorcycles in its workshop set up in Gazipur to meet domestic demand, he said.
Officials of BSEC said that the company, however, has yet to disclose the price of motorcycle.
But the price will be competitive and a little bit lower compared to other motorcycles manufactured and being assembled in the country, they said.
According to the agreement, BHPL will assemble 10,000 motorcycles in the first year, 35,000 in the second year and 70,000 in the third year, and then will begin manufacturing instead of merely assembling.
Industries ministry officials said that after successful completion of three years of assembling, the plant will go for production and manufacturing of 1,00,000 motorcycles per year.
The initial paid-up capital of the company is Tk 61 crore, and Honda will own 70 per cent of the shares of the company and BSEC the rest.
-With New Age input
