A new logistics service provider — Nippon Express Bangladesh Ltd — will start operations in the country next week. The company, a joint venture initiative of a Japan-based logistic giant Nippon Express Co and a Bangladeshi company Golden Harvest logistic Ltd, will come into operation on April 17.
The Bangladesh unit of Nippon aims to accomplish the work related to transportation and storage of exportable and imported goods of Bangladesh, said Rezaul Alam, chief operating officer of the company.
The Dhaka-based company has an initial paid-up capital of Tk 10 crore that will be increased up to Tk 100 crore in the next five years, said Alam.
The country exported goods worth $16 billion and settled import payments to the tune of $21.7 billion during the July-Feb period in current fiscal year, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
Both exports and imports registered a growth of around 14 percent from the same period last year, according to the central bank data.
Local and international logistic service providers now flock to Bangladesh market to grab the growing export and import activities.
“We will provide tailor-made services to the export and import-oriented organisations of the country,” said Alam.
He said his company will offer the entire logistic services relating to in-bound and out-bound activities of goods.
The export and import-oriented ogranisnations will get entire logistic services from Nippon Express Bangladesh as it has integrated all key activities such as transporting, custom brokering, packaging and shipping into one umbrella.
Alam said his company can help businesses save upto 40 percent of logistics costs. “We will work like a full-fledged logistic department of our client organisaions, helping the client save its costs of operating separate logistics department.”
It will help the client organisaton get relief from handling shipping and logistics activities, he said. “The client will be able to give more emphasis on its key functions such as product development and marketing activities.”
Initially, the joint venture company will start its operation with a 30,000 square feet warehouse in Gazipur owned by Golden Harvest Logistic Ltd and expand the existing capacity to 100,000 square feet this year, said Alam.
The company also plans to set up more warehouses in the strategic points of the country, including Chittagong, Dhaka, Mongla port and export processing zones, in the next three years and generate a turnover worth $100 million each month.
Two ports of the country handle around 10 lakh TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers every year on an average, said Alam.
He said the annual market size of the logistic business is estimated at $2 billion in the country, which is growing annually at 15 percent.
The company plans to hire 50 local people this year and 200 people in the next year to run its operations, he said.
Nippon Express Co, Japan’s largest international freight forwarder, has over 400 warehouses worldwide and it offers tailor-made services to best suit its clients’ everyday needs.
-With The Daily Star input
