Bangladesh RMG sector is interested for investment in light engineering, said Dr. Rubana Huq, President of BGMEA.

“RMG and textile sector of Bangladesh needs capital machinery along with spare sparts which are currently are being imported. We are importing more than hundred spare sparts for the RMG industry. Machinery worth around USD 1.6 billion were imported in the 2018-2019 fiscal years for top 27 items,” she said. 

“These are the products we could immediately align with and invite FDI, preferably through joint venture,” she added.

The BGMEA President made the remarks yesterday while addressing a session on light engineering at "Bangladesh-Netherlands Investment Summit 2020" organised by the Bangladesh embassy in the northwest European country with support from the Dutch government.

Dr. Huq also called for Dutch collaboration in research design, backward linkage in MMF based textile and recycling

She said, “We see an immediate interest in our sector to link with anybody who is interested in FDI. So, any kind of joint ventures, even FDI would be more than welcomed because light engineering is the way to go forward. It also relates very well to labour force because with the next threat of the fourth industrial revolution we also need to reskill our labour force because we want to go into value-added production. So, we need to move to that direction.”

She also called for foreign investment in light engineering either by setting up industries or through knowledge sharing. “Bangladesh has a competitive labour force and a willing government which has created environment conducive to foreign investment like establishment of special economic zones in the country,” Dr. Huq added. 

Bangladesh's ambassador to the Netherlands M Riaz Hamidullah also attended the session. Director of Flexible Bulk LC Packaging Marchel Schouten, Director of PRAN-RFL Group Uzma Chowdhury, Business Partner of BM Energy (BD) Ltd Andre Hendriks and Senior Investment Officer at FMO Cathalijn Naafs took part in the session as panelists.

Click here to watch her full speech at the Summit.