(Left) Arun Bansal, managing director of LM Ericsson Bangladesh Ltd, the local operation of Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson. (Right) Local technicians of the company are setting up the 7th international trunk exchange at a BTTB office in Banani, Dhaka yesterday. Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain

Whatever new technology comes along, it doesn't seem to matter. It all looks so simple when Rafique installs one after another mobile base stations on high-rise buildings throughout Dhaka.

A few years ago he was a cub engineer, completing his studies with a sound academic background, but no practical experience. Now after six years with the Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson he has the knowledge and confidence of a man whose skills are in global demand.

Rafique is an example of another side of the debate over the role of multinational companies in developing countries. For while the multinationals are criticized for dominating local markets and making large profits they are involved in another process, that of technology transfer.

Money can be repatriated, but when a technology comes to a country, there is no mechanism to restrict it from the local people, because every multinational company needs local manpower to run the company.

Ericsson, the world's largest supplier of mobile telecom infrastructure is no exception. It started its journey in Bangladesh ten years back dominated by foreign experts. Now, the company is dependent on local engineers, and of its 750 employees, most of them are local.

“When we started our company in Bangladesh, more than 50 percent of the staff were foreign experts and now we have less then five percent foreign experts and the remaining 95 percent are local employees,” said Arun Bansal, managing director of LM Ericsson Bangladesh Limited, himself an Indian.

It may be hard to believe that a multinational company such as Ericsson depends on local engineers. But Bansal believes it's a global trend.

“If the people are trained are up well and adopt technology, it does not matter who they are,” he said.

Over the past 10 years Ericsson has spent around Tk200crore (US$29million approximately) in total on training, travel and accommodation for Bangladeshis both in the country and abroad, Bansal said.

To meet global standards, Ericsson hires foreign experts to train local people. At the same time it sends local employees abroad to different Ericsson training centers. For example recently the company hired 50 local people and sent them to Indonesia to work for almost a month in order to learn the technical side of the job.

More experienced staff also spend periods abroad to broaden their experience, returning to take up more senior roles. For example Ericsson Bangladesh's head of technology is now a Bangladeshi with international experience.

The technology transfer widens if you include Ericsson's relations with its customers, the country's mobile operators. Here it also arranges technology seminars and training.

“Ericsson transfers the knowledge to the local employees so that eventually the company will have local management to run it, ” Bansal said.

“They do a fantastic job. Their educational level is very good, and the most promising thing is that locals want to succeed.”

In the long-term Ericsson Bangladesh should be run by local people. “This company needs to be run by local people because nobody else can understand local challenges better.”

Are local engineers as good as those trained abroad? Bansal's answer is simple “If the local engineers were not good, we would not be able to send them to other countries.”

And indeed that is what is happening. Bangladeshi telecom engineers are now working in Iran, the US, Indonesia and South Africa.

For Ericsson there are some business risks in funding expensive training programmes, as highly skilled and experienced staff are attractive to competitors and are poached.

“Of course there will be a certain amount of people who go to different companies,” Bansal said, adding that Ericsson prided itself on being an open company. “Obviously it is a short term loss as we spent lots of money to train them up. And so we have to train up the new persons”.

However, he said if the company provides the best working environment, employees will stay.

Hasan@thedailystar.net