Automobiles made in Bangladesh

    This is a rebuttal to an article published in a local English-language financial daily on January 21, which in my view, was misleading and not based on proper analysis of the circumstances. It postulated that Bangladesh should also manufacture and export automobiles, like sea-going vessels. Possibly, the writer did not have adequate technical or industrial background of engineering industries in Bangladesh and hence the conclusions drawn by him were not pragmatic. First, for both the shipbuilding and automobile industry, the engine providing the source of motive power, as well as all the auxiliaries, including even simple equipment associated with it like the ventilation and air exhaust fans, etc are all imported. The writer states in the article: 'Bangladesh has made significant progress in exporting ocean liners to many developed countries.' However, the reality is that except for the fabrication of the main structural frame , and the hull and its welding, most of which is labour-intensive , almost everything on the ship is imported and installed for re-export. Even the steel plates and various rolled sections for the hull frame for the ship, and even most of the electrodes for welding, are imported.
     The same also applies to the vehicles 'manufactured' at Progoti Industries in Bangladesh. In this case, however, the labour component is very little; hence,'manufacturing' motor vehicles which is only an assembly of imported components in Bangladesh is not financially viable.In shipbuilding industry, the labour component in fabrication, welding and assembly of the ship is significantly large, and with all equipment brought in on import-cum-re-export basis, our shipbuilding industry is profitable. Basically, the profit comes from the difference in the cost of skilled and unskilled labour overseas, compared to Bangladesh.
     Actually our engineering industries are very basic, like foundry and simple machining mostly. Even for this industry, almost all raw materials have to be imported. Even the fans and all other household utility goods that we have in our homes which are usually locally assembled are imported. This acute lack of all types of raw materials and components, essential for engineering industries, is the basic reason for our backwardness in that sector because most of the cost is material and machinery related.