160 types of spare parts can be manufactured locally

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FE Report
Bangladesh can locally produce about 160 items of spare parts for its seven important sectors substituting import goods worth Tk 136 billion annually, said experts at a seminar held at a city hotel Saturday.
Currently, Bangladesh is producing spare parts for different sectors worth Tk 50 billion annually.
The experts were addressing a seminar on potential for import substitution of spare parts production for 13 selected sectors in Bangladesh.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) sponsored the study and was conducted by the MIDAS.
JICA Bangladesh representative Nobuko Suzuki Kayashima, MIDAS Chairman SM Al-Husainy, managing director Abdul Karim and BITAC director general Ashish Kumar Paul joined the programme.
They said Bangladesh can produce spare parts for RMG, pharmaceuticals, textiles, jute, sugar, fertiliser, power plants, agricultural equipment and agro-processing sectors.
Bangladesh's manufacturing sectors imports around 67 per cent spare parts from different countries.
RMG-woven imports 97 per cent of their spare parts, RMG-knit 99 per cent, power plants 100 per cent, railway 63 per cent, gas transmission plant 98 per cent textiles 86 per cent.
And spinning 49 per cent, jute 41 per cent, agricultural equipment 79 per cent, pharmaceuticals 61 per cent, fertiliser 10 per cent, sugar plants 30 per cent, agro processing units 58 per cent, the study said.
The study advocated for a time-bound cash programme to promote import substitution of spare parts through domestic production and a national committee to formulate and closely monitor the implementation of the cash programme.