Japan adding Bangladesh in the list of preferred destinations for manufacturing facilities relocating from China and incentivising the factories that are moving out of the country (China) is expected to give the economy of the country (Bangladesh) a boost.
Recent media reports underlined this while citing observations made by the Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh in this regard.
This will provide an opportunity for Bangladesh, reportedly, maintained envoy Naoki Ito while adding that Japanese companies needed to diversify their supply chains further consequent to breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic in China.
The Japanese envoy also added that over the last 10 years, the number of Japanese companies operating in Bangladesh have tripled to around 300 even as he stated that Japanese manufacturers have already been seeking lower labour costs and supply-chain diversification by moving some output out of China for years as wages rose and infrastructure in countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam improved.
Meanwhile, it may be mentioned here that to lure Japanese firms’ production facilities, Bangladesh is making a Special Economic Zone — the sprawling industrial zone of 1,000 acres in the Araihazar subdistrict is around 32 kilometres away from Dhaka — which is expected to bring around US $ 20 billion in the form of investment from Japan.
This is, reportedly, as per the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA).
