Bonding for the better

Sabur Khan, managing direcftor of DCL and Dixson Chew, managing director of Pensonic (Malaysia) signs the agreement at the event

TO develop a market for electrical home appliances and eventually set up a manufacturing plant in Bangladesh within one or two years, Pensonic Industries (Malaysia) tied up with Daffodil Computers Ltd. (DCL), one of country's leading ICT enterprises. Both company representatives signed an exclusive partnership agreement on December 18 at the 'First Bangladesh-Malaysia Business Forum 2004'.

Managing Director of DCL, Sabur Khan and Dixson Chew, managing director of Pensonic (Malaysia), signed the agreement under the presence of former prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, Finance Minister, Saifur Rahman, Minister for foreign affairs, Morshed Khan, and Commerce Minister, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury.

"It's a big step towards the growth of the consumer electronics market," said Mahabubur Rahaman, head of administration and support, DCL. Rahaman also mentioned how the delegates from the Malaysian company were taken for a spin around the various electronics markets of the city, including New Market, Rangs Tower, Gulshan and Stadium market.

Initially Pensonic will bring in electrical home appliances including rice cookers, blenders, juicers, refrigerators and televisions, which are manufactured in Malaysia. The company hopes to put a competitive price tag for their products and ensured to maintain better quality. Pensonic appliances are available in twenty-seven countries in the Asian region including Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. Their products are also exported to some countries in the Middle Eastern regions.

DCL, in coordination with Pensonic plans to setup sixty-four outlets in major districts of the country. Pensonic also wishes to setup a manufacturing plant in Bangladesh and looks forward for support from the government.

This attempt, the first of its kind, is expected to boost the local revenue generation and will work as a leap for country's economy with an equal rise in the job pool among the locals, thus benefiting the employment sector of Bangladesh.

The process for the proposed plant setup will be in full swing once they receive a compelling response from the local government. It is likely that the company will take at least two years to setup showrooms in the different locations of the country and observe how much consumer market Pensonic products will grab once in full function.

"Political stability is the precondition for the growth of any country's economy," said Mahathir Mohamad, while reflecting on how a slight wrong decision from the policy-makers will only devastate such development for at least one governmental period. Mahathir also mentioned how the legal framework for investments should be crafted in such a way that it convinces the foreign investors that their capitals and properties would be safe, especially from expropriation or nationalisation by the local government.

"The government must adopt a business-friendly attitude," he added, while further continuing on how ministers must be accessible to the business communities. He also emphasised on regular dialogues between the ministers and the business leaders.

Mahathir stated how Malaysia rapidly transformed from an agricultural country to an industrialised one. "Despite aiming only for job creation, Malaysia gained a lot more from the foreign investments in manufacturing; its workers became highly skilled and commanded better pay," he referred, mentioning how foreign investors played the key-role in development of the present Malaysian skilled hands who could also work for the local companies and even produce many of the final components and products, thus increasing the possibilities and ties of the Malaysian industries to participate in the world of electronics and ICT market and also become vendors in certain product promotion.