In an exclusive interview with The Daily Star on the sidelines of the Bangladesh Malaysia Business Forum yesterday, Mansur said the Malaysian businesses are looking at options to relocate their industries in Bangladesh in order to use the "excellent human capital" and preferential trade concessions to explore the developed markets.

"We are encouraging traditional labour-intensive industries to explore new trade opportunities for Bangladesh," said Mansur referring to the human resources available here. "You should not see the huge population as a liability, but as an important resource."

Mansur is the president of Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers, the biggest business chamber of manufacturing industries in Malaysia encompassing 82 percent of Malaysia's exports.

He said presently Bangladesh gets trade concessions in the form of generalised system of preference (GSP) from the 25-member European Union. "We understand that the size of EU will expand with new members waiting to be incorporated into the forum."

Besides, Bangladesh has a number of untapped sectors with provision of cheap labour and overhead costs which will attract Malaysian foreign investments. "Costs in China are cheap, but it will not remain so for much longer with business centres in Shanghai and Beijing already becoming very expensive."

Malaysian business interests in Bangladesh are currently focused around outsourcing, especially in the growing automotive sector in Malaysia. In the global perspective, Bangladesh will be attractive with its cheap labour and being next to one of the bigger players of global outsourcing, India.

"Gone are the days of competition when nations had to try to kill each others' markets. The present day approach is to move towards strategic alliances on bilateral, sub-regional and regional levels," president of Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers said.

He said Bangladesh is strategically wedged between two of the fastest growing economies of the world -- China and India -- and can really take advantage through investing heavily in developing infrastructure to profit from its position.

Monsur noted, "With only two ports, a lot needs to be done. To be a really good trading nation in infrastructure as well as handling cargo, immigration and customs need to be overhauled."

"There is room for plenty of expansion in the construction industry since a lot of infrastructure developments are to take place in Bangladesh. Malaysia has strength in steel and cement manufacturers which can cater to the future needs of Bangladesh," Monsur added.

Noting that French company Lafarge has been one of the rare companies to see the massive potential in that sector, he said, adding that Malaysia's booming steel and cement industry are paying attention to the potential.

He said economic development is linked to social and political stability. "Once economy is tuned to take the right direction all the social and political unrest will be over in due course.