‘BD can save foreign currency by manufacturing mobile phone spare parts’

Bangladesh can save huge foreign currency by manufacturing spare parts of mobile phones as such a capacity has been created in the country, an expert of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) said in the city Tuesday, reports BSS.
"Many local companies have started assembling as well as marketing of mobile phone parts here...this is a capacity of Bangladesh and the country should go for manufacturing those parts capitalising on that capacity," Prof Kamal Uddin, Director of the Institute of Appropriate Technology (IAT) at BUET, told the news agency.
Kamal said it's possible to produce at least 20 to 25 per cent spare parts of mobile phone sets using local technological know-how. "Mobile phone is a high-content technology but initially the country can produce good-quality covers, casings and mainframes of mobile phones," he said.
Methods such as Semi-Knocked Down (SKD) and Complete-Knocked Down (CKD) could be applied in the manufacturing process and afterward those companies could be turned into manufacturers by providing them with necessary fiscal policy support in the form of incentives.
Referring to a study conducted last year, the expert said the country has almost Tk 25 billion  (Tk 2,500 crore) turnover of mobile phone market and some 116.2 million  (11.62 crore) people are now using mobile phones in the country.
"Once the production of mobile sets begins, it would turn into a big industry and generate many jobs, which will largely absorb from the three million job seekers entering the country's workforce every year," he added.
"We should not be confined to limited products such as readymade garments. We should also focus on producing spare parts of solar panels, mobile phones and other light engineering items," he said.
Echoing the BUET Prof Kamal, Lokman Hossain Akash, chief of International Marketing of Walton, said, "We're ready to manufacture spare parts of mobile phone sets as we have recently developed software and Research and Development (R&D) at our factories."
 Mr Akash said not only Walton but also many companies have now become in a position to manufacture small scale mobile phone parts provided policy support such as reduction in duty on import of raw materials.
Flexible import duty can encourage many companies to become manufacturers of spare mobile set parts in the country, he said.
"We've proved with our product of refrigerator competing with other foreign products...we are now holding lion market share of the refrigerator market in Bangladesh because of our product's quality and price competitiveness," said  Mr Akash.
The country has imported 2.32 billion (2.32 crore) mobile sets from July 1, 2013 to 30th June 2014 and 98 per cent came from China and the remainder from Korea and Vietnam, according to the data provided by customs department.