Month: September 2018

Bangladesh has the potential to become a large global player in plastic industry, although it has not yet emerged as a global player in the segment.

The country, at present, has a share of 0.01 percent of the global plastic market that measures up to $599 billion, a recent report of the Center of Policy Dialogue (CPD) shows suggesting that the country can expand its share globally but the reasons for failing to take benefit from advantageous market conditions are the supply constraints and unskilled workforce in the sector.

An ESCAP report projected that Bangladesh’s market size would reach $2 billion in 2015 and $4 billion in 2020 if the country could improve its infrastructure, enhance skills development, and address waste management issues.

The plastic industry in Bangladesh began on a small scale in the 1960s where handmade mould was used to make plastic toys, photo frames, and plastic spare parts.

In the following decade, plastic jugs and plates were added to the product list by virtue of introducing automatic manufacturing machines.

However, it was in the 1980s when the industrial growth of Bangladesh’s plastic sector began with the establishment of injection grade and film grade plastic industries which were eventually used to make products such as plastic bags, plastic apparel hangers, and bottle crates. It was during this time where the plastic sector started contributing significantly to the national economy and growing at a rapid pace.

As a result of the increased industrialised production, there are 3,000 plastic manufacturing units in the country, mostly SME, that employ around 1-2 million people.

Around 65 percent of these factories are located in Dhaka, 20 percent in Chittagong, and 10 percent at Narayanganj. The remaining 5 percent are in Khulna, Comilla, Bogra, and Rajshahi districts.
Out of the available manufacturing units, 65 percent belong to small enterprises while 33 percent belong to medium ones.
The remaining 2 percent consists of the largest plastic manufacturing companies that sell their products both locally and abroad. Manufactured products include PVC pipes, shopping bags, injection molding products, PET/PE bottles, rubber gloves, toys, electronic switches, computer and electronic accessories, and various other household items.

The popularity of plastic has been growing each year with plastic product consumption amounting to 750,000 tonnes in 2013, almost 5 kg per capita, showing an increase from the 2 kg per capita in 2007.

The domestic market size for plastic production was estimated to be worth approximately $890 million in 2012. The plastic sector also contributed to around 1.2 percent of the country’s GDP, up from a mere 0.4 percent in 2004. While the GDP share might not be as robust as the apparel and leather industries, the ESCAP has projected a 10 percent annual growth in plastic production in Bangladesh.

According to the Bangladesh Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BPGMEA), Bangladesh imports over 150,000 tonnes of plastic raw materials annually, and this figure has experienced a consistent annual increase.
Raw materials import has significantly increased due to growing domestic demand. Furthermore, in order to make plastic, hydrocarbon raw materials are required to be extracted from crude oils and natural gas.

While Bangladesh has good reserves of natural gas and are exploring its use for manufacturing plastic, it cannot sustain current levels of production due to lack of modern technologies and limited capital resources compared to developed nations. The machinery used to produce plastic too had to be imported from countries such as Thailand or India.

Exports are moderately smaller to imports because their still-developing technologies are not at a world standard yet and thereby are unable to achieve comparatively high quality finished goods as other developed nations.
BPGMEA reports that export of plastic products amounts to $340 million in 2013. From this figure, $85 million is from direct exports while the rest of $255 million is from indirect (deemed) exports. Indirect exports refer mainly to plastic products as accessories to apparel. Bangladesh’s most exported destinations are China, India, USA, UK, and UAE, etc.

Major challenges in the Bangladesh’s plastic industry are power shortage, skill lacking, waste management and environmental concerns. Even with all the challenges that the plastic industry faces, there remains tremendous level of benefits for Bangladesh to be reaped. Revamping infrastructure issues with foreign assistance has stated and recycling rates continue to rise leading to improved environmental welfare and increased profits from use of more recycled material.

With Bangladesh’s plastic consumption at 5 kg per capita and world consumption at 30 kg per capita, there is substantial room for domestic growth. The availability of low cost labor provides further return for increased export earnings.

The BPGMEA leaders say, it would be possible to earn $1 billion from exporting plastic and plastic products. With the right government incentive and compliance, the sector would be able to receive investment in expensive technologies and machineries in plastic manufacturing.
That will allow Bangladesh to take advantage of low cost plastic productions, similar to India and China, allowing the country to grab a larger stake in the global plastic demand.

Source:https://www.bangla-expo.com/ipf/newsDetail.asp?serno=589

Australian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Julia Niblett on Sunday said reliable energy supply is crucial to attract both domestic and foreign investment and enable higher economic growth needed for providing employment with higher income.

“Australian companies have significant expertise in mining and energy; and well-placed to further help Bangladesh develop its mining and energy sectors,” she said.

The High Commissioner welcomed the government of Bangladesh’s initiatives to address energy needs in Bangladesh. “This is an ambitious and impressive essential focus of policy to support Bangladesh’s economic growth.”

High Commissioner Niblett was addressing a discussion on ‘Bilateral Business and Trade Opportunities Between Australia and Bangladesh’ organized by the Australia Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ABCCI) in a city hotel.

Prime Minister’s International Affairs Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi spoke as the chief guest while Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) Kazi M Aminul Islam and President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin spoke as special guests with ABCCI President Obaidur Rahman in the chair.

ABCCI Vice President M Khan made a presentation on Bangladesh-Australia trade and investment opportunities.

High Commissioner Niblett said oil, gas and coal extraction, power generation, transport, trade and infrastructure and skill development – there are lots of areas for collaboration between the two countries.

“We’ll continue to work energetically and closely with all of you to take Bangladesh-Australia trade and investment relations forward,” said the High Commissioner.

Niblett said Australia and Bangladesh have enjoyed a longstanding and mutually beneficial trade relationship that has grown significantly in the last five years.

The bilateral trade grew to over AUD 2.3 billion dollars in 2017, reflecting Bangladesh’s economic growth and the complementary strengths of two economies.

“Despite the trade surplus in Australia’s favour, bilateral trade is relatively balanced, and as such benefits both our countries,” she said.

The High Commissioner laid emphasis on diversification of economic relations into other fields that can be crucial for Bangladesh’s further progress. “There’re lots of scopes for collaboration.”

Dr Rizvi invited the Australian investors to come and invest in Bangladesh taking the advantage of “stable political system” availability of workers and fast growing market inside Bangladesh and re-export to other countries. “So the investors who will come here you can come and there will not be any change.”

He said Bangladesh has a stable society with political stability and growing maturity of democratic institutions. “We’ll continue to have the stable society… democratic continuity will continue. There is no doubt about it.”

Kazi Aminul of BIDA said Australia is a tested friend of Bangladesh and the two countries can achieve a lot together.

He said under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina they are working to further improve investment and business climate in the country. “We can take the relations to historically higher level.”

FBCCI President Mohiuddin said the government has ensured the culture of peace in the country and hoped that Australian investors will invest more in Bangladesh.

“We don’t see any more destructive politics. We always love peace that exists. We hope more collaboration,” he added.

Business leaders from the FBCCI, other associations and members of other bilateral Chambers were also present.

Established in 2004, the ABCCI provides a range of services to its members based in both Australia and Bangladesh, and it has been a leading voice of businesses in both countries.UNB.

Source:http://www.theindependentbd.com/post/166623

China is developing a 750-acre industrial park in Bangladesh which will largely be used by Chinese manufacturing firms, a Chinese official said on Wednesday, part of its push to expand links with South Asia and beyond.

State-run China Harbour Engineering Company will hold a 70 percent share in a joint venture being formed for the park with the Bangladesh Special Economic Zone Authority (BSEZA), Li Guangjun, the economic and commercial counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Dhaka, said.

“This is for the first time China has received such a facility from the Bangladesh government where Chinese investors will be able to set up industries, mainly manufacturing firms,” Li told Reuters.

China is investing billions of dollars in building ports, power stations and roads in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan as part of its Belt and Road Initiative to build trade and transport corridors across Asia and beyond.

The industrial park will be in Bangladesh’s main port city of Chittagong and will take five years to become fully operational.

Li said Chinese investment in Bangladesh would soon reach $10 billion, mainly focused on power, road and infrastructure projects.

Most financing for Chinese investment in Bangladesh comes through soft Chinese loans, with interest rates of 2 percent and repayment periods of 20 years.

In Sri Lanka, China has faced criticism for tough loan conditions which critics say has pushed the island nation into debt and forced it to hand over majority control of Hambantota port to China in an equity for debt swap.

Li said the land acquisition process needed to be faster in Bangladesh for projects to reach completion.

Source:https://www.thedailystar.net/business/china-develop-bangladesh-industrial-zone-part-south-asia-push-1558339

The new monetary policy has opened up opportunities for the private sector to take large amount of loans, said speakers yesterday.

Investors have already started to reap the benefit of the relaxed monetary policy, they said at a workshop at the auditorium of the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) in Dhaka.

The monetary policy for July-December this year was unveiled on July 31.

The monetary policy was announced keeping the higher GDP growth in consideration, said Faisal Ahmed, chief economist of the Bangladesh Bank, while presenting the keynote paper.

As a result, the private sector will get adequate financing which will help the government achieve the expected growth, he added.

The private sector credit ceiling was fixed at 16.8 percent, which, the chief economist said, is quite enough to achieve more than 7 percent growth.

The private sector credit growth slowed down in recent months amid liquidity crisis in the market.

The growth rate dropped to an 18-month low of 15.87 percent in July, according to central bank data. The growth was 1 percentage point lower than the central bank’s target of 16.8 percent for the first half of the current fiscal year. Toufic Ahmad Choudhury, director-general of BIBM, also spoke.

Source:https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/private-sector-getting-more-loans-relaxed-monetary-policy-1630438

Despite its tiny population, Bhutan’s economic growth has led to increasing urbanisation and problems associated with biodegradable waste, which threatens the beauty of one of the most pristine environments in the world.

Bhutan’s rapid economic development over the last few decades has been striking. According to World Bank data the GDP of the country grew from USD 135 million in 1980 to USD 2.2 billion in 2016, or sixteen times. Based on its indicators, Bhutan has been recommended for graduation from Least Developed Country status by the UN.

While this is good news for the country, it is also accompanied by some negative indicators.

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The National Environment Commission’s (NEC) report “Bhutan State of Environment, 2016” has pointed out that, with rapid socio-economic development, increasing population and urbanisation, the country is seeing an increase in the amount of solid waste generated. More problematically the composition of that waste is shifting from biodegradable to non-biodegradable waste.

Nedup Tshering, a retired civil servant and environmentalist who started a civil society organisation based in Thimphu, Clean Bhutan, said compared to other countries, waste in Bhutan is not a huge problem. However, it is growing rapidly, and within since 2014, when Tshering started his initiative, the waste produced by individual household has doubled from 250 grams a day per person to almost half a kilogramme per person now.

Disposable diapers are becoming a growing concern across the country as more people have started to use them and they do not degrade well even in landfills, stated the NEC report. Another issue of concern is that municipal solid waste also contains hazardous and electronic waste.

Some examples of hazardous household waste are batteries, household cleaning products, cosmetics, automobile maintenance products and electronics such as phone, television sets, bulbs, and tube-lights.

With development and modernisation, there is growing trend of people discarding electronics like phones, laptops and TVs for newer models, which could lead to growing amount of e-waste, said the NEC officials.

In 2017, the Global Waterkeeper Alliance and Clean Bhutan launched a water quality monitoring programme and found that key rivers in Bhutan contained significant levels of E.Coli bacteria.

One of the major problems with the problem specifically to Bhutan’s capital is that the sewer system is connected directly into the river. Furthermore the leachate (the black water) from the wasteland fields in Memelakha also falls down into the Olarongchu river that connects to it. “If we don’t control this today in a decade or so, we will find Olarongchu quite toxic,” said Tshering.

The National Environment Commission said that their surveys and monitoring indicate that Bhutan’s water resources are healthy at the macro level, but there is an increasing concern that population growth, burial customs, and fast urbanisations are outpacing the installation of sewerage treatment and solid waste collection. This is threatening the water quality in downstream areas

Tshering explained that part of what is needed is a change in customs. People throwing waste into rivers is not a new thing, but as Bhutan has grown more prosperous and the urban areas have enlarged, the type and amount of waste have changed. There is far more plastic and other non-biodegradable waste. People have started changing their habits, with more segregation of waste, but the facilities to manage the waste is still catching up.

So far Clean Bhutan has conducted 115 cleaning campaigns in towns and villages around 16 districts involving 4,431 volunteers, and 20 clean-up programs along the four rivers of Thimphu-chu, Paro-chu, Punakha-chu (Po-chu/Mochu) and Chubachu stream in Thimphu. (“Chu” means water in Dzongkha, and many rivers are named after a prominent place with the chu suffix added.) It has also conducted 44 such clean-up campaigns along trail and trek routes.

Big city problems
But the problem is growing ever larger as the municipal services struggle to catch up. Tshering said that until a few years ago the trash was mostly found in the towns, but now it is also found in the jungle and rivers. The periphery of Thimphu is full of solid waste, which he attributes to the lack of facilities provided to people.

The NEC envisaged that by 2020, half of the Bhutanese population will live in urban areas. The two urban centres of Thimphu and Phuentsholing exhibit a complexity of environmental and social issues including the problem of municipal wastes. This growth is enormous, considering that Thimphu was a small hamlet in the 1960s before it was declared the capital of the country. It is now the most populous city in the country, with Phuentsholing, a border town in the south, close behind

“At this rate, the issue of solid waste management and associated environmental and social problems will be more pronounced in the absence of a proper solid waste management system,” said the NEC report.

According to Thimphu City Cooperation, less than 15 per cent of total households in the city are connected to the sewer system and rest rely on individual septic tanks. Between June 2010 to December 2012, 2,410 trips of vacuum tanker was used to empty 7,240 cubic metres of sewage. Domestic sewage, uncontrolled seepage, or overflows from septic tanks are some of the main sources of water pollution.

Additionally, in places like Thimphu and Phuentsholing where there are large concentrations of automobile workshops, the discharge of waste oil and other effluents is a significant source of water pollution.

Yeshey Wangdi, Chief Environment Officer with Thimphu thromde (municipal authority) said that the solid waste in Thimphu is growing along with the growth of the population of the city. As per the 2005 census, Thimphu’s population was 95,000, which he said is expected to have increased to more than 150,000. “Waste generation is directly dependent on population,” Wangdi said.

Since 2014 the municipal authority has outsourced the collection and disposal of waste to two private companies for. The two companies have to collect waste three times a week from every household. However, the thromde has been receiving many complaints from public that the waste collection is not happening on time. This he attributed to the breakdown of waste collection trucks or mismatch of collection timing with officer goers.

Another challenge is that unlike other countries every building has both commercial and residential functions. The collection services struggle to figure out when to send people where, whether during office hours, or not.

He said despite various problems, the department is committed to convert the waste problem into an opportunity. “Our present motto is reducing, reuse and recycle,” he said. Wangdi said the composition of the waste was 50 per cent organic, 17 per cent paper, and 12 per cent plastic. Therefore, the focus thromde’s focus is to “make trash into cash.”

Rules and regulations
Environmental officials also pointed that the problem is not just with the waste, but failure to implement the rules. A few years ago Thimphu thromde passed a rule which requires people to pay a fine if caught throwing waste in places other than disposal areas. In practice this rule seems totally nonexistent.

Yeshey Wangdi said that the rule is being implemented and that there were several cases reported to the city. In the first instance the thromde asks people to pay the fine, if they do not, the case is forwarded to court. However, no case has so far been reported to court.

Environmentalists said that there are at least nine Acts that are directly or partially related to solid waste management. However, implementing and collaborating agencies and stakeholders were faced with resource challenges. As Bhutan continues on its growth story, these gaps will also continue to grow, creating a bigger and bigger challenge to clean up in a country which had been, until recently, a pristine environment.

Source:https://www.eco-business.com/news/as-bhutans-economy-grows-so-does-its-waste-problem/