A three-member delegation of the company, part of the larger Mitsubishi Group, headed by Ryujiro Kobashi, Vice President and Division General Manager for South Asia, Middle East and Africa and Europe, arrived in Bangladesh on May 14 on invitation of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA). They will leave the country on May 17, a press release said on Thursday.
Other members are--- Junichi Sabanai, General Manager of Production Engineering Division and Yasuhiko Ueda, Assistant to General Manager.
Today, they met with Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) Executive Chairman Paban Chowdhury to discuss investment angles for the development of an automotive industry in Bangladesh.
“Mitsubishi Motors wants to support the motorization and industrialization of Bangladesh. I am visiting Bangladesh this time to discuss that with the honorable members of the Bangladesh government,” said Mr. Kobashi.
BIDA Executive Chairman Kazi M Aminul Islam said that the market size for automobiles in Bangladesh is going to catch up to its rapid economic growth and higher income of its people.
He added to our overall stability, high profitability and flexible labor market, Bangladesh is offering the best incentives. Every year 2.3 million young Bangladeshis enter the job market. We want them to be introduced to high-value and technology-based manufacturing.
Aminul thanked the Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Hiroyasu Izumi for his role in turning Japanese investment, in the form of foreign direct investment as opposed to official development assistance, in Bangladesh a continuing reality.
On Wednesday, the Mitsubishi delegation accompanied by BIDA officials, visited the Mirsarai Economic Zone in Chattogram and also stopped by at the premises of Pragoti Industries in Sitakunda, where Mitsubishi’s ‘Pajero Sport’ has been assembled for a number of years now.