Manufacturing activities have regained momentum though not in full swing in the recent times thanks to apparently calm political situation, which earlier had affected badly the production.
Local manufacturers reported the recent development as they were making desperate efforts in getting back on increasing the output and covering up the production losses as soon as the political situation becomes normal, following the January 5 election.
They were, however, passing through fears whether major political party BNP mounts anti-government agitation as threatened.
The political unrest before and after the election caused a setback in industrial production as reflected in the official figures (provisional) for the last fiscal year, most part of which went through the turmoil.
Also due to disruptions in supplies of energy and manufacturing input, the manufacturing contribution to GDP fell substantially to 8.68% in 2013-14 as compared to previous fiscal year’s 10.31%.
“Production activities improved a lot at present compared to the past,” said Md Jashim Uddin, a plastic goods producer, who also described the nightmare how the manufacturing activities were affected during the days of political unrest.
“But perennial problems like gas and electricity still put a damper on the production,” he said.
Rice miller Abdul Quddus said though mills run in full swing now, past nightmarish days still haunt us as we are still bearing the interests against bank loans taken at that time.
Plastic goods manufacturer Jashim had to cut his production to almost half as he failed to feed his factory with raw materials due to transport scarcity caused by the then political violence in the run up to the general election.
“Production suffered badly at that time,” said Jashim. Plastic industry was the worst sufferer as it is entirely dependent on imported raw material, he pointed out.
His Bengal Plastic industry at Savar processed raw materials only half the capacity of more than 3,000 tonnes per month throughout the second half of last year due to hartals and blockades enforced by the opposition across the country.
For rice miller Quddus, the situation was much worse than Jashim. As a small scale industry, he had no other option but to close down his rice mill.
He usually collects paddy from Naogaon and Dinajpur districts to run his mill located at Modina area in Joypurhat town. But he failed to continue operations due to transport crisis.
“Those hard days I have never seen in my 10 years of business life,” said Quddus. “Still, I have to bear the brunt of that.”
Production losses of Jashim and Quddus were well reflected in the dismal manufacturing data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Center for Policy Dialogue Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman said the political turmoil and massive violence hit the manufacturing sector, resulting in lower than estimated growth in the concluding fiscal year.
“Political uncertainty is the new additional element along with perennial problem of energy crisis and under developed infrastructure behind slowdown of the manufacturing growth,” he said.
The small-scale industries has performed worst as their growth declined to 6.6% in FY2014 to the GDP, 2.21 percentage points lower than that in FY2013, according to the BBS. The large and medium scale industries fell to 9.16% from 10.65% during the period.
The data underscores the large, medium and small scale manufacturing had under-performed, leading to drop in the annual target of economic growth of 7% in the last fiscal year. In FY14, the GDP growth rose marginally to 6.12% from 6.01% a year earlier.
Zaid Bakht, research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said there has been no significant private investment in the industrial sector last year to increase the productivity as it was evident in declining import of capital machinery.
He said most medium to large scale manufacturers have somehow managed to keep production during political violence, but small industry found it difficult to cope with the situation.
Performance of glass and glass product, carpet and rugs, petroleum refinery, industrial chemicals, leather products, transport equipments, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, wood products, ceramic, cement and electronic goods also showed slow growth.
Small scale manufacturing industries like rice milling, dairy products, knitwear, leather products, footwear, embroidery, wooden furniture and non-metallic mineral products show downward growth during the period.
“The slowdown in the industrial output was inevitable because of the cut in industrial productivity due to power and gas shortage,” said Jahangir Alamin, president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association.
Political unrest was the additional pain for the industry, he added.