Although a handful Danish company was operating in Bangladesh 15 years back, over 60 companies are now doing business here while more and more Danish companies have also shown their keen interest to invest more especially in the energy sector.
The country’s readymade garment sector, port operations, energy efficient equipment, solar, wind and thermal energy, ICT sector, food and agriculture, fishing, and environment solution are the areas where the Danish companies are interested for further investment in the near future, said Commercial Counsellor of the Danish Embassy in Dhaka Soren Robenhagen while talking to the Dhaka Tribune.
“Generally, the whole energy sector, I believe will have much more focus in the future,” he said categorically.
As Dano (Arla Foods), Novo Nordisk and Maersk Line are the three Danish companies operating in Bangladesh for the last couple of decades, the Danish government undertook a programme 15 years back to promote business-to-business contact between the two countries.
Robenhagen, however, said: “Many small companies don’t have the capacity and resources to start business in a developing country like Bangladesh.”
Danida, Danish development agency, launched a programme for matchmaking among the companies of the two countries and it paid off, he said.
According to the statistics, during January-September period of the last year, the two-way trade between the two countries was US$530 million or Tk4,200 crore. It was just half during the whole period of 2010 as the two-way trade was $275 million or Tk2, 200 crore.
Robenhagen observed that many factory owners in Bangladesh opted for cheap products that lead to higher maintenance and energy costs.
The total cost of any production comprised of procurement, maintenance and repair, and energy costs and for some equipment the procurement cost is 5%, maintenance and repair cost is 10% and the rest is energy costs, he added.
He said a good high quality and energy efficient product from Denmark or from any Nordic country could reduce the total costs of ownership compared with a cheaper and low quality product.
The good quality product will often have longer life cycle, lower maintenance cost and half the energy cost than the cheap product, said Robenhagen. “That is the thinking we need to change in Bangladesh.”
