China and India are competing to win Bangladesh!

China and India are competing to deliver coronavirus vaccines to Bangladesh in a diplomatic offensive carefully choreographed to expand their influence in the densely populated South Asian nation.

Last month, Bangladesh cleared the way for privately owned Chinese company Sinovac Biotech to conduct a stage three clinical trial of its CoronaVac vaccine.

Dhaka-based clinical research institute icddr,b will conduct the trial and said Wednesday that a conditional deal is in place for the vaccine to be produced locally. "If the CoronaVac vaccine is successful, it has been agreed with Sinovac that a local competent vaccine manufacturer in Bangladesh will be selected and enabled through a license from Sinovac to manufacture the vaccine in Bangladesh," icddr,b told the Nikkei Asian Review in a written response to questions.

 

The Bangladeshi government, however, is making sure not to put all its eggs in one basket. On Aug. 28 it welcomed a tie-up that ensures local company Beximco Pharmaceuticals gets prioritized vaccine supplies from the Serum Institute of India.

The battle between the two regional powers highlights the pandemic-induced geopolitical opportunity beyond traditional trade and investment offered by Bangladesh, strategically located with more than 160 million people.

While China and India are its biggest economic partners, the smaller country suffers from a chronic imbalance in trade with them. For most of the past decade, Dhaka's relations with New Delhi have deepened, reinforced by the historic support the giant neighbor extended during the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to Bangladesh's independence. But that bond has recently become strained over bilateral spats that have angered Bangladesh as well as its growing economic relationship with China.

The larger issue involves India's passage last year of its Citizenship Amendment Act to fast-track naturalization of non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. That was preceded by a program to register nationals in India's northern Assam state, fueling fears of an exodus of Muslims into Bangladesh.

China took advantage of the situation, with its state-backed companies landing big-ticket infrastructure contracts in Bangladesh, outbidding Indian companies. Most recently, a Chinese developer secured an airport terminal contract in the northeastern city of Sylhet bordering India, which caused consternation among policymakers in New Delhi.

Faiz Sobhan, senior research director at the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Dhaka, said that Bangladesh's close ties with India and China give it leverage to get either nation to supply a large quantity of vaccines at a low price. Sobhan poured water on the notion that China's aggressive vaccine diplomacy will weigh on Dhaka's bilateral ties with India, as New Delhi "too has reached out to support Bangladesh in its quest for the vaccine."

Meanwhile, Russia has also shown interest in providing its Sputnik V vaccine with Bangladeshi government support for local manufacturing, provided companies are capable of producing it, Health Minister Zahid Maleque recently told reporters.

Beximco Group produces PPE and generic copies of Bemsivir

Beximco Group, a leading business conglomerates of Bangladesh, has been exporting an affluent quantity of medical protective gear along with medicines in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic. The company donated about 6.5 million medical gowns to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on May 25, 2020.

Moreover, Beximco's Textile and Apparel Unit has been producing around 50 million pieces of PPE per month to meet the country's demand. In this way, Beximco Group continues to thrive on coronavirus challenges. 

So far, Beximco Pharma has sold around 25,000 generic copies of Bemsivir, its version of remdesivir in Nigeria, Azerbaijan, the Philippines, Venezuela and Pakistan. Beximco Group is the only organization that produces medicines along with medical protective gear. The group has invested about 30 million dollar in their PPE unit in March. The unit is currently producing 50 million different types of protective gear, including masks and gowns. Beximco has already signed an agreement with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to supply washable long sleeve gowns. The deal was completed through the American clothing company Hanesbrands. Beximco received an order of 20 million such products worth about 250 million in April.

Beximco will invest $20 million in Detroit

Beximco Group announced it will set up a plant in Detroit in the U.S. The company will produce masks and protective gear in the plant. The company earlier started selling the generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc.'s antiviral drug. Beximco's textile unit is tapping new opportunities as luxury brands from New York to Paris scrap garment orders amid the pandemic. The company expects the Detroit plant to be ready in nine months, while the one in Bangladesh will start production in four months.

Beximco will invest $20 million in the Detroit plant, said Syed Naved Husain, chief executive officer of the group's textile business. The company will also invest $30 million on a plant at home, he said. The company will initially supply N95 masks in Detroit before expanding to other parts of the U.S., Husain said.

Detroit had been recruiting a Bangladeshi company to manufacture jeans in the city, Duggan said, but when the COVID-19 outbreak took hold, the company brought in partners and pivoted to making personal protective equipment. "This comes from a process we've been at for more than a year," Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said  when asked about the plan during a coronavirus response briefing.
The mayor said the city is looking for a site for the factory.

"Nobody picks Detroit at random. This is a result of (Detroit Economic Growth Corp. CEO) Kevin Johnson and the DEGC team and our economic development team," Duggan said. "I think it's time we start to make clothes back in the United States, and we've been working on that for the last year or two. And I didn't expect PPE would be the first plant to come"

Beximco said Hanesbrands Inc. bought 6.5 million personal protective equipment items from the company to supply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Original article:Bangladesh company says it will build mask factory in Detroit

Beximco exports 6.5 million personal protective equipment to US brand Hanes

Bangladesh joined the selected group of countries that manufacture world-class personal protection equipment in a large scale. Beximco Group is now an exporter of the PPE. It exported 6.5 million personal protective equipment to US brand Hanes.

“Beximco has proudly joined the fight against the global pandemic by moving swiftly to add manufacturing capabilities in PPE items such as gowns, masks and coveralls,” said Beximco Group Director Syed Naved Husain. He said COVID-19 had changed how the world works, and that Beximco had to urgently respond.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Md Shahriar Alam, and US Ambassador Earl Miller were present at Shahjalal International Airport to send off Beximco’s first shipment of PPE to the US.  Shahriar lauded the role of Beximco’s contribution to Bangladesh’s economy.He said like the rest of the world Bangladesh is also facing toughest times and trying to cope with this pandemic. “And in these trying times, it’s remarkable to see that within this short span of two months Bangladesh was able to foray into this very regulated market with such a sensitive healthcare product with just not ten or twenty thousand pieces but six and a half million pieces. What an achievement!” he said.

“The US welcomes Bangladesh’s world-class and large-scale PPE production to the global marketplace. The Beximco-Hanes partnership is another great example of how our two great nations are combating the COVID-19 pandemic,” the U.S. ambassador said.

Nazmul Hassan MP, managing director of Beximco Pharma, termed the event historic. He said in the initial days of pandemic, there was huge local demand for PPE and Beximco took the initiative of providing PPEs to local healthcare services through import. “But there was severe shortage globally as demand was increasing. We, therefore, decided to produce them to meet the demand. Today we are not only providing PPE to our local healthcare services but also exporting them to very highly regulated sensitive markets,” he said.



Information gathered from

Beximco exports 6.5 million PPE gowns to US
https://bdnews24.com/business/2020/05/26/beximco-exports-6.5-million-ppe-gowns-to-us

Beximco ships 6.5 million PPE gowns to US
https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/beximco-ships-65-million-ppe-gowns-us-1905616

Business opportunities in the hospitality sector

Salman F Rahman urged entrepreneurs to invest in the hospitality sector of the region. The Asia-Pacific region now in the world’s largest and fastest developing economy. The prime minister’s private industry and investment adviser and a parliamentary member, Salman F Rahman, requested entrepreneurs to take business opportunities.

The Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry held a discussion in Dhaka where Salman F Rahman gave a speech. The conference had over 300 business delegates including representatives of leading national commerce chambers, business leaders and policymakers from 27 Asia Pacific countries.

In his speech, Salman F Rahman said Bangladesh has a lot of manpower and training in hospitality management can enable them to serve both inside the country and outside. As a panel discussant, Salman F Rahman said - I will urge the Cacci businessmen to take full investment potential of Bangladesh. The FBCCI President Sheikh Fazle Fahim also gave speech on the discussion organized by the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Brian O’Gallagher, deputy chief executive officer of Australia’s Chamber of Commerce Northern Territory, Cacci President Samir Modi  also spoke. They said that they were interested in training Bangladesh’s manpower in hospitality management and already some of his country’s companies were engaged with young people. Giving the inaugural speech, FBCCI President Sheikh Fazle Fahim said Bangladesh’s economy was stable and its macro-economic growth was in an upward trajectory.

Cacci President Samir Modi in his speech said the Asia-Pacific region was now the world’s largest and fastest developing economy spearheading growth in trade, investment, new technologies, innovation and reforms. He also mentioned that the recent Asia Pacific economic trends gave hopes of becoming the global economy’s future engine.


Information:

https://thetourisminternational.com/2019/12/03/invest-in-hospitality-management/

https://bangladesh-corporate-world.blogspot.com/2020/01/bangladesh-has-huge-potential-on.html

Changes required in the RMG industry

The RMG industry in Bangladesh needs to change. It does not innovate enough. It is too commodity focused. It needs to invest in sustainable production. All these things have been said for a great many years.

There is a more fundamental issue at play here: one of mindset. As humans we are creatures of habit and we are naturally resistant to change. Indeed, whole books have been written on the subject of change management, with a great many reasons offered as to why people within businesses and organisations—including business leaders—resist change.

I believe this is where the problem lies with the RMG sector in Bangladesh.

Few people would disagree that we need to change as an industry to remain relevant in global markets. But, as Barack Obama’s quote above highlights, we are often guilty of waiting for another person instead of making changes happen ourselves. It’s so much easier to let somebody else take the first steps, and this same argument goes for both RMG factories and their customers, brands and retailers.

Let me start with manufacturers. Are the prices paid by brands too low? Yes, they often are. Is Bangladesh unfairly treated by the international media and is there a lot of inaccurate reporting which paints a negative picture of the RMG industry? There is certainly truth in this. Is a lot of onus being placed on us as suppliers to invest in sustainable solutions which brands get the credit for? Again, there is truth in this.

What we all need to understand is that none of the above issues will change at a fundamental level so the only thing we can do is get on with things and, as Barack Obama says, become the change that we seek.

That means going out and making the investments we need to become competitive. Invest in technology. Invest in R&D. Invest in sustainability. Invest in people.

Moreover, the mindsets of both the employers of our RMG sector and of the employees need to be changed. The apparel industry is not a new industry in our country. But still the level of professionalism among many of the employees in the sector are not up to the expectation. The employers, on the other hand, in the past used to employ underprepared people for this industry who learned through their experience. But now we have a workforce who has education on this industry related subjects. Their talents need to be nurtured and they should be given the opportunities to unleash their potential. As man is certainly more important than machine, the employers should have the mindset to invest in people.

And very importantly, invest in story-telling—stories about success, stories about change-making, stories about struggle and spirit, stories about progress, stories about innovation and ingenuity.

Adversarial supplier-customer relationships need to become a thing of the past. The challenges we face are too large and complex to tackle as individual businesses and, in many cases, they require closer working relationships across the supply chain.

With open minds and a willingness to forge new alliances with customers—and in some cases competitors—there is no reason why we would not be able to successfully tackle all of these challenges if we work together.
Report of Daily Star.

Salman F Rahman asked CACCI member countries to invest in Bangladesh

Salman F Rahman, country´s prominent businessman and a parliament member, requested Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) member countries to invest in Bangladesh’s hospitality sector.

He was speaking at a program organized by the institution. The program was held at the Sonargaon hotel in Dhaka.

The prominent businessman and advisor to the PM, Salman F Rahman said in his speech that Bangladesh has potential in hospitality management as the economy has been growing alongside tourism and hospitality services.

The discussion was a part of the two-day 33rd CACCI conference organised in association with the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI). The conference has over 300 business delegates including representatives of leading national commerce chambers, business leaders and policymakers from 27 Asia Pacific countries. It also has eminent speakers ranging from leading economists and business practitioners to regional policymakers to assess key challenges and issues.

“I will urge the CACCI businessmen to take full investment potential of Bangladesh,” Rahman said as a panel discussant. Bangladesh has a lot of manpower and training in hospitality management can enable them to serve both inside the country and outside, Salman said.

Giving the inaugural speech, FBCCI President Sheikh Fazle Fahim said Bangladesh’s economy was stable and its macro-economic growth was in an upward trajectory. Brian O’Gallagher, deputy chief executive officer of Australia’s Chamber of Commerce Northern Territory, said they were interested in training Bangladesh’s manpower in hospitality management and already some of his country’s companies were engaged with young people.

Main report: Invest in hospitality management