Bangladesh economy is moving ahead and the country's growth story is really attractive. It has demonstrated resilience amidst all the fluctuations in the global economy in the recent times. In fact, growth is really happening here. So, we are interested to put our stake on the growth of Bangladesh.
Moloy Banerjee, country cluster head of Linde Gases South Asia business told The FE in an interview last week in Dhaka. He was accompanied by Erphan Shihabul Matin, managing director of Linde Bangladesh.
"Linde is a long-time partner of Bangladesh in its efforts to march ahead and now we are going for fresh big investment as we feel that growth prospect is bright," said Mr. Banerjee while explaining the company's plan for investing some $15.5 million (Tk 1.2 billion or EUR 14.6 million) in Bangladesh.
"This investment will also give a positive signal to other foreign investors when the country needs substantial foreign investment," added Mr. Banerjee. "The new plant in which the Linde will be investing requires uninterrupted power supply for its operation. So, decision of the Linde to invest in such a plant reflects the fact that Bangladesh's power situation has definitely improved."
It is to be noted that inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) stood at $1.83 billion in last fiscal year (FY15).
Linde Bangladesh Limited is a subsidiary of German-based The Linde Group's Gases Division. It plans to build a large air separation unit (ASU) with capacity of producing approximately 100 tons of liquefied gases per day. It has three plants in Tejgaon, Rupganj and Shitalpur and 20 sales centres across the country.
Linde's new ASU will be operationalised by 2017 in the plant located in Rupganj. It will provide supply of liquefied gases and related solutions to Bangladesh's growing healthcare, food and beverage, fabrication, pharmaceutical, shipbuilding and ship recycling industries. For instance, liquid oxygen is provided to hospitals for conversion into gas for patients with breathing problems and liquid nitrogen is used in the medical field for cryosurgery.
Industrial liquid gases, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Argon and Carbon-di-Oxide comprise the bulk segment of the company's output which also has industrial compressed packaged gas and wielding goods.
While asked about the scope of employment generation through this investment, Mr Banerjee said that the planned investment is highly capital intensive one. So, there exists is little scope for direct employment generation.
"But, our new ASU will definitely generate indirect employment," he said. "For supply and distribution of products, a good number of workers in different categories will be involved."
As the Rupganj plant will enhance Linde Bangladesh's current production capacity to a large extent, the company expects to grab more market share. In this connection, Mr Matin said that Linde Bangladesh occupied some 60 per cent share in gases market which includes industrial and medical gases. In wielding market, company's share is around 70 per cent.
In reply to another question, Mr Banerjee said that the company's business growth is linked with country's GDP growth. "As a rule of thumb, our business growth is 1.5 times higher than annul economic growth rate. So, for Bangladesh, our annual business growth is 10 per cent plus."
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