Lack of funds, tech obstacle to light engineering growth
Experts say at seminar
Star Business Report
Lack of necessary funds and modern technology remains as a major hurdle for development of the light engineering sector, which, according to experts, has all potentials of being a foreign exchange earner next to the ready made garments sector.They see it a thrust sector that could generate more employments eliminating poverty to a great extent. The experts and industry people were speaking at a seminar on 'Access to Finance: Roadmap for the Light Engineering Sector' at a city hotel yesterday. IFC-SEDF (South Asia Enterprise Development Facility), Bangladesh Engineering Industry Owners Association and Business Promotion Council, a project under the Ministry of Commerce, jointly organised the seminar. The speakers urged the government as well as banks and other financial institutions to come forward to provide soft and easy term loans for the light engineering sector. Commerce Secretary Firoz Ahmed, EPB (Export Promotion Bureau) Vice Chairman Sahab Ullah, IFC-SEDF Deputy General Manager Deepak P Adhikary spoke on the occasion. Ghulam Hossain, coordinator, Business Promotion Council, chaired the seminar, while Mohammad A (Rume) Ali, managing director, Brac Enterprises, presented the keynote paper. Firoz Ahmed expressed his hope that the industrial sector's contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) would shortly be raised to 30 percent from the present rate of 18 percent due to some measures taken by the government. He said with a view to giving a boost to the light engineering sector, it has been identified as a thrust sector in the industrial and export policies and the Light Engineering Council is formed. Sahab Ullah informed the seminar that the amount earned from exports of light engineering products in the first nine months of the current fiscal has exceeded $173.5 million, which was only US$12.9 million in the 2002-03 fiscal. He expressed his high hope about the sector's potentials saying that it could be elevated to a major forex earning sector after the RMG industry. Deepak P Adhikary said although around 10 lakh workers are engaged in the sector, it has not been given due importance. In his keynote paper, Mohammad A (Rume) Ali said 80 percent light engineering industries have no access to finance from traditional financial organisations, while more than 60 percent investors do not get loans. He linked an enhanced employment generation and poverty reduction to availability of soft loan facility for the sector.
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