Beximco Pharma forms joint venture with Malaysian BioCare

Country’s leading pharmaceuticals company Beximco Pharma formed a joint venture with Malaysian BioCare Manufacturing (M) Sdn. Beximco Pharma which is part of Beximco Group, is the fastest growing manufacturer of generic pharmaceutical products in Bangladesh.

Beximco Pharma will be responsible for providing technical support to BioCare in developing facilities at Seri Iskandar Pharmaceutical Park. Once the facilities are developed, BioCare will start producing specialised pharmaceutical products.

Malaysian government recently took initiatives to promote local pharmaceutical industry. Beximco Pharma of Bangladesh extended its help to Malaysian government and BioCare. With this Beximco Pharma aims to strengthen their global presence.

Beximco Pharma which is a sister concern of Bangladesh's largest group of companies Beximco Group was founded by Salman F Rahman and Sohail F Rahman in 1976. The company produces active pharmaceutical ingredients and generic pharmaceutical formulation products. Beximco Pharma currently operates at a state of the art facility at a 23-acre site. Around 3,500 people work at the company. It sells products to Austria, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Germany, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Romania, Kuwait, Myanmar,  Nepal, Jordan, Bhutan, Vietnam, Azerbaijan and Ghana among other countries.

Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement to help Bangladeshi companies

Under the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement or APTA, Bangladesh would get two types of tariff facilities- general import tax waiver and facilities for the Least Developed Countries. The decision came after a meeting among the commerce ministries of seven member countries. Now Bangladesh would get tax waiver for 10677 products.

The APTA, established in 1975, consisted of seven countries are Bangladesh, India, China, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Laos and Mongolia. But earlier it was knows as Bangkok Agreement and renamed as APTA in 2005.

Its main aim is to promote economic development by taking measures of mutual beneficial trade liberalization. It would contribute to the trade expansion among the countries and economic integration. APTA agreement is very potential and it could expand to other sub-regions like Central Asia and the Pacific.

Exports increase and creates a positive vibe

In November 2016, country's export rose 5.46% to USD 2.89 billion, exceeding the monthly target by USD 196.32 million thanks to the performance of apparel, leather goods, jute and jute goods and shrimp sectors. Companies including Beximco Group and Pran Group had huge contribution to this.

Apparel sector contributes 80% of total export earning and brought USD2.31 billion last month. The apparel price had dropped due to fall in the euro against the dollar and also Brexit. Apart from this, currency devaluation against the dollar in the neighboring countries like   India and Pakistan also affected competitive edge among exporters in the international market.

The second biggest export earning sector is leather, leather products and footwear and it increased by 16.62% to USD 533 million during the July-November period. Now still the leather goods and leather footwear’s export remain upbeat.

Leather footwear shipment rose 15.14% to USD232.89 million while raw jute shipping increased 17.78% to USD86 million during 2016-17 fiscal year.

Bangladesh moving forward

Henry Kissinger belittled our country by calling it ‘bottomless basket’ in the 1970s. But this ‘bottomless basket’ is now full of hope and potential. Proving his prediction of hopeless economic situation wrong, Bangladesh is now moving toward with great economic progress. 

Bangladesh has seen a solid 6 % constant average economic growth since the early 1990s. Such balanced economic growth not only caught eyes of economists around the globe but also big organizations like world bank which termed the economic steadiness as “development paradox”  due to the negative attributing of economic pliability. Bangladesh is part of Goldman Sachs’ N-11, otherwise known as eleven emerging countries, with pristine potential have the ability to be one of the prominent economies by 21st century. Furthermore, an increase in social development index also catching the attention from the United Nations.

To ensure its economy is unbridled in advancement, an all-encompassing approach has been taken. Adapt policies enchains a further deviation from the existing inflations to a tolerable single digit. In bringing about the success for “Digital Bangladesh” by 2021, digitization is seen widespread in each clusters of governance.

Aside from the economic factor, Bangladesh has significantly progressed in social sector. A reduction of about half of the number in income poverty is observed. Bangladesh has successfully fulfilled many objectives for the Millennium Development Goal (MDG). For its promptness in achieving targets, the UN has awarded the government.

Attainment of self-sufficiency in food grins is appreciated much since this country is burdened with population. In NGO, its leadership is continued. BRAC is supposed to be the largest international NGO owing to its huge number of employees and beneficiaries. Bangladesh has also introduced the world with terms including ‘micro-credit’ and ‘social business’.

The success stories mirroring the aspirations of common people printed everyday by the resolute and free electric and print media are unlimited. Emerging Civil Society of Bangladesh is building up a firm base. Pharmaceutical industry is an example of such fastness in industries.

Bangladesh is experiencing a steady growth and the future looks bright.

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Things to consider

Industrial growth is necessary. And Bangladesh is rapidly ensuring that this growth is taking place. But sometimes if makes one wonder "Are we doing everything right?"

The below pictures speaks a lot:

 

Bangladesh's recent achievements

Bangladesh has experienced numerous achievements in 2015 and in 2016 and it has also ensured a lot of developments. But the starting of 2015 was not that much comprehensive as there were few dissatisfaction caused by ferocity, political issues, killing of common people and few more. In below the developments and achievements are highlighted:  

1) Bangladesh has kept an imposing track record in growth and development, and as a result, with the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita from $1,046 to $4,125, the country has touched the lower-middle income countries. Bangladesh promoted to this group with Kenya, Myanmar, and Tajikistan. In 2014-15, per capita income of Bangladesh reached to 1,314 from 1,190 in the previous year. 

2) Bangladesh accomplished a breakthrough of Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with India on November 2015. A total of 162 enclaves have been exchanged by the two countries and Bangladesh got 51 of them. In result of this significant landmark, 17,160 acres of land were added to the map of Bangladesh.

3) One fourth of the total population of Bangladesh are from southwest area and The Padma Multipurpose Bridge will deliver them a great experience to travel to and from Dhaka city. On December 12, works of this 6.15-km bridge got underway. Not only travel but also in case of trade and economic undertakings, this bridge will be a great helping hand.

4) On December 25, the Bangladesh Atomic Energy chairman Engineer Md. Monirul Islam and the senior vice president of Atomstroy export signed up an agreement and it was the country’s first nuclear power contract. Bangladesh signed the pact with Russia. The plant will be built in Pabna district.

5) Bangladesh signed the country’s first ever satellite project named Bangabandhu-1 with a French company ThalesAlenia Space. The French company will manufacture, launch and uphold the satellite for providing communication and transmission facility. 

6) To upsurge economic assistance within the sub-grouping of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) contracted a Motor Vehicle Agreement on June 15. Underneath this agreement, people and vehicles like cargo of all the grouped nations will get smooth movement in any of these four countries. This $8-billion road connectivity scheme has begun on October. Following the endorsement of the agreement for the Regulation of Passengers, Personal, and Cargo Vehicular Traffic with BBNI to smooth cross- border motor vehicle movement, 18 days rally also held that covered 4,500-km.

7) Bangladesh has made exceptional development in fighting food shortage and confirming food safety. For this remarkable performance the country has won a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) award on June 16. 

8) Private companies of the country including Beximco Group, Navana Group, ACI Group are immensely contributing to the economy and society. Beximco Group by size is the largest private company in Bangladesh. Beximco Group's major industries are located at the Beximco Industrial Park in Gazipur. It recently took Go Green initiative. It had converted the 350 acre of the park into solar power. Beximco, under Salman F Rahman’s leadership, is fully committed to bring prosperity to the people of Bangladesh.

All the achievements are strong proofs that, Bangladesh is moving forward in every aspect to make a better position in the world map. 

The future is bright! 

Making railway an affordable mode of transportation

Bangladesh Railway has been neglected for years. Recently government has given priority on this oldest transportation service in the country. The parliamentary standing committee on Railway Ministry suggested taking initiative to make BR (Bangladesh Railway) more people friendly with modern services. The committee suggested updating policies for purchasing of different Railway components and instrument with experts opinions.

Recently the BR has demanded a Tk 150 billion to acquire land for Padma Bridge rail connectivity and Dohazari –Cox’s Bazar railway projects. In 2015-16 fiscal years, the government had allocated a Tk 56.5billion BR but it had to refund a 6.5 billion aid from India due to lack of progress in the projects.

Meanwhile, BR signed an agreement with China Railway Group Limited for construction of a 174- km rail-track that would connect the Padma multipurpose bridge with a cost at USD 3.14 billion.

In March, 2016, BR increased train fare by7.5 % on average but unfortunately it did not yet improve its service qualities for passengers. Critics said much corruption, false policies, abuse of money, local and international syndication by automobile firms’ lobbying-all things made BR a failed and loss sector while the rail transportation are known as the safest and cheapest transportation ways around the world. 

BR has a trend to put its burden on passengers to cope with its continuous loosing. In 2012, it had increased fare and the annual loss was reduced by Tk. 2.74billion in two years but fare hike also reduced it passengers. Mostly, goods transportation reduced at a notable rate while operating expenses are also increased. As a result, state owned railway company experienced a 39% decrease in goods transportation.

After the liberation war in 1971, the rail sector was out of government focus and now about 1200km rail tracks were at risk due to lack of proper maintenances for years. Many railways lines were closed but reason is unknown while the government should have increased railways instead. There are so many problems in this sector but the major problems are locomotives shortages and route capacity.

Fortunately the government has taken some initiatives to revive this potential transportation sector. Now the government decided to reopen 27 closed stations across the country within a year. BR may face a great challenge to develop railways services as the design and construction of rail tracks in the country were not made to serve the modern facilities those need for modern passengers. Even after several years of liberation war, the authorities failed to establish link between East and West Zone. Moreover, most of the rail links are not straight as it has many rounding loops in various sections.

To improve railway service, the government needs not to invest for fast train service as geographical limitation is not suitable for such a type of railway. Rather authorities should take proper initiatives to change the BR bad images by implementing sustainable development projects.