South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun on Saturday has said his country is looking at bringing investments of major Korean brands to Bangladesh as the country is improving its investment environment and expanding market base.

“Diversification is a real task for me and for our two governments. We’ve to move beyond RMG cooperation. What we see here is that diversification is now happening,” he said on Saturday after visiting the Fair Electronics Limited factory in Narshingdi.

Members of the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) also visited the factory together with the South Korean Ambassador.

Terming Bangladesh a growing and vibrant economy, Ambassador Lee said his country is looking at bringing investments of major Korean brands like Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo to Bangladesh in the areas of construction, engineering, electronics and automobiles .

“So long, our investments were mainly in the readymade garment sector. I think it is about eighty percent. Now we are diversifying our investments and it will continue to go up,” he said, hoping that Dhaka-Seoul cooperation will continue to grow with the presence of "big names."

The South Korean envoy appreciated the business friendly initiatives of the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and noted the important role that the private sector is playing in the country.

He said global big names like Samsung and Hyundai will help attract more companies to come and invest in Bangladesh.

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“South Korean companies are eager to invest here because its market is expanding, it has demonstrated sustained economic growth, its labour cost is comparatively lower and the government is improving its policy support,” Lee Jang-keun said.

Asked if they face any challenges, he said the customs and tax regulations are complicated, which needs to be simplified and consistent. “The good thing is that the government is now listening to us.”

In 2017, Fair Group established a Fair Electronics manufacturing plant in association with Samsung at Narsingdi. Samsung mobile phones, refrigerator, television, air conditioner, microwave oven and washing machine are produced with the ‘Made in Bangladesh’ tag.

The Bangladeshi company is producing all the latest Samsung smart phones here, officials said.    

Lee said in the middle of this year, Fair Group will start assembling cars in association with Hyundai in Bangladesh – a fact that demonstrates how the Korean private companies are becoming more interested in investing here.

South Korea has so far invested $1.3 billion and annual investment from Korea now is $100 million, he added.

Korean export to Bangladesh was US$ 1.636 billion while Bangladesh’s export to Korea was US$ 552 million US dollars in 2021 which the Ambassador sees a “historic high” for both countries.

Asked whether the Korean investment is having any impact due to the current situation in Ukraine, Ambassador Lee said as of now they do no not see any impact but they are closely observing the situation.

The Golden Jubilee of diplomatic relations in 2023 would be a significant momentum for the two countries to take the strong ties into a new height,” he said, mentioning that the two countries now need to diversify the areas of cooperation.

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Fair Group Advisor Maj Gen (Retd) Hamid R Chowdhury said their company is the only company which is representing Samsung and Hyundai in Bangladesh. “This is a very rare opportunity for us to shoulder these two big names.”

Appreciating Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for encouraging the production of mobile phones locally, he said things have changed and there are many interesting things. “This is a Bangladesh factory, Bangladeshi people are working here with very renowned brands.”

Chief Marketing Officer of the Fair Group Mohammed Mesbah Uddin said though they have faced some challenges initially many of those challenges have been addressed.

There were challenges initially of getting the right people but their partner trained people gradually, he added.

Responding to a question, Mesbah said Bangladesh market is a very vibrant market and this market will grow further.

“We’re focusing mostly on the domestic market. We still believe that we’ve a long way to go in terms of catering the domestic market,” he said, adding that the highest penetrated product – refrigerator – could cover only 64 percent of domestic demand which means 36 percent household demand remains unmet.

Responding to a question on the export plan, he said they are working on it as they see some challenges – limited outbound flights which are mostly Middle East centric while the number of cargo flights is few.

“We’ve scope to work in those areas including further improvement in terms of port infrastructure,” said the official.

Director of Fair Group Mutassim Daiaan, DCAB President Rezaul Karim Lotus and its General Secretary AKM Moinuddin were present.