Japan incentivizing its companies to shift manufacturing facilities out of China and adding Bangladesh to a list of preferred destinations for relocating the factories might give the nation’s economy a boost.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic started in China, Japanese companies needed to diversify” their supply chains further, Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito said in an interview. “This will provide an opportunity for Bangladesh.”
Japan’s nudge to relocate companies comes at a time when a special economic zone (SEZ) is being developed in Bangladesh to attract Japanese firms’ production facilities.
The industrial zone sprawling on 405 hectares in the Araihazar sub-district, 32km from the capital Dhaka, is expected to bring in US$20 billion in Japanese investment, the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority said.
For years, Japanese manufacturers have sought lower labor costs and supply-chain diversification by moving some output out of China, as wages rose and infrastructure in countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh improved.
Over the past 10 years, the number of Japanese companies operating in Bangladesh has tripled to about 300, Ito said.
Japan has allocated US$350 million in special loans to set up the US$1 billion industrial zone, making it the largest such assistance for an SEZ in Asia, Ito added.
The Araihazar Industrial Park, which is to be operational by next year, is seeking to draw new investments from automakers, such as Suzuki Motor Corp and Mitsubishi Corp, Ito said.
Japan Tobacco Inc and Honda Motor Co are so far among the largest Japanese investors in Bangladesh.
The nation occupies a geographically strategic location linking South Asia and Southeast Asia, and Japan is planning a 177.77 billion taka (US$2.1 billion) deep-sea port on Matarbari Island.
One of the world’s most populous countries, Bangladesh has 160 million people residing in a land area that is about 40 percent of Japan.
Bangladesh’s economy, which grew an estimated 5.2 percent in the year ended in June last year, is expected to expand 7.4 percent in the current financial year.
While that is slower than the 8.2 percent pace previously forecast, it still puts the nation ahead of regional peers on the growth metric.
The country nestled between India and the Bay of Bengal is a destination with “good and strong” prospects for Japanese companies, Ito said.
“The pace of recovery is faster in Bangladesh, compared with neighboring countries,” Ito added.
Apple Inc’s iPhone 13 debut was met with a stock slump on Tuesday, keeping with a tradition of poor share price performance on the day new devices are unveiled. Shares of the technology giant sank after Apple executives, including chief executive officer Tim Cook, presented the new lineup of phones and other devices. The stock fell 1 percent to close at US$148.12 in New York trading. Prior to Tuesday, Apple’s shares fell on three-quarters of the days Apple unveiled new iPhones, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Excluding Apple’s 8.3 percent rally on the day cofounder Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone in
As Google expands its footprint in Taiwan, it plans to recruit software and hardware talent for its Google Nest smart device team, a chip development team, and teams to support its Pixel and Chromebook products, Google Taiwan said yesterday. Supply chain management talent will also be in demand, the company said at an online event. “There will always be openings for software engineers, hardware engineers and project managers,” Google Taiwan human resources head Vanessa Lu (呂亞樵) said. “The strength of the Taiwanese industry is very clear,” Lu said, adding that the company would continue to invest in Taiwan. Lu also doused some
BEATING SCHEDULE: Government plans are for nacelle assemblies to be totally local from next year, but Orsted Taiwan said that it was going ‘above and beyond’ Wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA yesterday inaugurated Taiwan’s first nacelle assembly plant at the Port of Taichung, its first assembly facility for offshore nacelles outside Europe. Vice Premier Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), a long-time champion of Taiwan’s ambitions to become a regional hub in the offshore wind farm industry, described the plant as a “milestone” at a ceremony at the plant. “The completion of Siemens Gamesa’s nacelle assembly plant is a milestone for the development of the offshore wind farm industry in Taiwan and a step toward localizing the supply chain,” Shen said. “This is only the beginning. My great hope
ROBUST DEMAND: 5G, AI and Internet of Things technologies are driving growth and employment, as the company plans a new plant in Hsinchu County Contract electronics manufacturer Wistron Corp (緯創) plans to invest about NT$11.1 billion (US$400.58 million) in Taiwan, in line with its global deployment strategy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. The company’s investment is also a demonstration of robust demand for 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things applications, the ministry said in a statement. Wistron, spun off from Acer Inc (宏碁) in 2001, is a notebook computer original design manufacturing partner to major PC brands. The company, which is based in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), also produces servers, data storage devices, game consoles and communications products for brand clients
RSS