Professor Mustafizur Rahman on private sector investment, published in the Daily Sun on Saturday, 28 September 2013.
Expert for private sector investment in branding promising export items
BSS
Bangladeshi emerging brands are gradually becoming the first choice among the global buyers, surpassing many exportable in Asia, thanks to the competent workforce, competitiveness and adoption of modern technology.
The country’s brands—Beximco Pharma, Shinepukur Ceramics, Walton Motorcycles and Biman Bangladesh—were selected as “most promising brands” of Asia among 200 brands at the first ever Asian Brand and Leadership Summit held in Dubai last month.
Experts say the country should now focus on branding of promising products such as Readymade Garment (RMG), leather and leather goods, footwear, pharmaceutical, ceramics and automobile to propel the country’s economic growth.
Nazmul Hassan, managing director of Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd, said, “The recognition speak about our commitment to excellence and will certainly help Beximco Pharma reach a broader global audience.”
“I am very pleased that Beximco Pharma has been selected as one of the top 31 most promising brands in Asia and also as industry’s no. 1 brand in the pharmaceuticals category,” he said.
“This is undoubtedly an international recognition for the country’s automobile industry,” said SM Ashraful Alam, Managing Director of Walton High-Tech Industries Ltd (WHIL). Alam described the recognition as a milestone for his company and said Walton will go a long way with this acknowledgment.
“We have been given the recognition at a time when the country was witnessing a rapid growth. This will encourage other manufacturing industries to do better,” he said adding that it will help image building abroad. “Automobile, electronic and home appliances have a great value addition to the country’s economy.”
The Walton MD said, “We are lining up several of our products for branding…our target countries are US, Europe, Australia and Middle Eastern countries. We are now exporting 17 countries Myanmar, African countries,” he said.
Talking to BSS, Professor Dr Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) described the recognition as a positive sign for Bangladesh’s economy and said this will help marketing local products and country branding too.
Definitely it’s a positive sign that they have recognized few Bangladeshi products but branding for other potential products including apparel, jute and jute goods for those the country has earned kudos in international arena is not up to the mark yet.
Branding should be part of business strategy in future for businesspeople although there are risk and reward and rival competitors, Prof Mustafiz said adding that when a country is projected through branding it helps build image but also attract new buyers and foreign direct investment.
“And country has to enter into forward-linkage segment of market. If we can sell our products in overseas markets with brands it will add more value to Bangladesh’s economy bolstering the economy,” he said. —BSS