Nepalese billionaire plans to bring noodles to Bangladesh

Binod K Chaudhary

Nepalese industrial conglomerate Chaudhary Group will invest more than Tk 50 crore in Bangladesh to produce noodles for the domestic market and for exports.

By June of next year, the Wai Wai brand of noodles will be available in the Bangladeshi market for consumption and also for export to neighbouring countries, said Binod K Chaudhary, chairman of the group, and Nepal's first billionaire.

Chaudhary spoke to The Daily Star on the sidelines of the two-day seminar of International Chamber of Commerce at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka yesterday.

The Wai Wai brand of noodles is popular among people in South Asia, he said.

“I have already selected the local partner and factory in Bangladesh,” he said, while declining to reveal any names. He said his group's annual turnover stands at more than $2 billion with $300 million coming from the noodles segment alone.

“The noodles factory here will directly employ more than 500 people,” Chaudhary said. “My company meets 2 percent of global demand for noodles at present.”

Currently, Chaudhary Group has 80 companies with operations in 30 countries. Chaudhary has business in Nepal, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nairobi and Serbia.

“I see the African markets as potential for my company. I think Africa is a growing market.”

SAARC

Chaudhary also suggested redefining the Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) for more regional trade among member countries. Currently, regional trade among Saarc member countries is below 5 percent of their total overseas trade, which is insignificant, compared to other regional trade blocs, he said.

India, being the largest nation among the Saarc members, should take on a leadership role with other smaller countries for regional economic development through trade, he added.

With Narendra Modi elected as prime minister of India, the situation started improving as he visited Nepal and Sri Lanka to establish good relationships among the Saarc nations, he said. Among so many important issues, Nepal started exporting 5,000 megawatts of electricity to India. “We should also think about regional development beyond Saarc.” China, being one of the most influential economic powerhouses globally, has a big role to play for the development of South Asia, he said.

China already has big investment in India. So, any political conflict between China and India would not hinder development of the South Asian region, he said.

“China has the money and technology and India and other South Asian nations have the human capital and other resources. So we can build South Asia all together with combined efforts,” he added.

The Saarc could not produce effective results to boost regional trade for a difference in the sizes of the economies, for example, India is big while the Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have smaller economies, Chaudhary said.

Moreover, some countries in the Saarc area are landlocked and they are not inter-connected with each other through roads and highways, he added.

The billionaire's dream for the future is to grow his business and make his group a true global conglomerate.

“I also dream to list my group on the New York Stock Exchange so that people can say a good company has gone to New York from the South Asian region.”