After missing opportunities over the decades to become an automobile manufacturing country, Bangladesh is taking slow but steady steps in this direction, sources said.
They said besides assembling and building bodies for buses and trucks, efforts are going on to manufacture engines, assembling small and light vehicles and high technology cars.
He said despite dominance of imported vehicles, local investment is taking place in assembling and building bodies. Currently motorcycles, jeeps, cars, buses, trucks, pickups, ambulances and other vehicles are being assembled.
Currently development in this sector is limited to assembling and building bodies for buses and trucks, according to a private investor. Motorcycles, cars and jeeps are being assembled by some private companies but it is still small in number compared with imports, he said.
According to a market data, 100 per cent manufacture of truck bodies and 70 per cent of bus bodies are taking place locally. Several joint venture investments are in pipeline to manufacture engines and motor vehicles.
The state owned Progati Industry, which once assembled bodies of buses and trucks, is assembling jeeps locally under joint venture, a Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC) source said.
A motorcycle manufacturer said local entrepreneurs are meeting more than 25 per cent demand for motorcycles in the country and the rest 75 is met from imports.
He said investment in automobile sector is possible in the country as there is a strong light engineering industry base, growing local market, cheaper cost of labour and export opportunities.
A BSEC official said, "Earlier a good number of initiatives were taken by the government through our corporation but those did not see light of the day."
He said the Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory (BMTF), Diesel Plant, Bangladesh Industrial Technical Assistance Corporation (BITAC) and other initiatives of the government failed to result in the growth of a local automobile industry.
A source in the state owned Progati Industries said the government's initiatives for developing this sector failed as there were irregularities and absence of a vision. Policies were also inappropriate.
A motorcycle manufacturer said if there is an automobile policy and the government provides all types of industrial support, it will possible to meet cent per cent demand for motorcycles locally.
A BMTF source said, "Currently we are assembling different types of cars, jeeps, defence ambulances, defence vehicles and other automobiles with foreign collaboration."
He said, "We are also planning to manufacture engines locally with the assistance of a foreign company."
A motorcycle manufacturer said, "We are planning to establish an engine manufacturing plant within the next two years. It is not a matter of much money."
He said automobile industry in the country is growing though it is only in body and assembling side, but it will grow further if new investments take place and technology is brought in.
An automobile analyst at the mechanical engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) said all the elements are there in the country for the emergence of an automobile industry.
He said light engineering sector for spares, skilled manpower and growing domestic market size are in favour of making investments to manufacture small and medium vehicles.
The BUET expert said time is still not ripe for investments in manufacturing heavy vehicles but Bangladesh may start with small vehicles now.
Currently local market is dominated by India, Japan and other Asian countries in both brand new and reconditioned vehicles of different sizes and shapes, a BITAC source said.
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