United News of Bangladesh

Kihak Sung, Chairman of Youngone Corporation and a pioneer in Bangladesh’s readymade garments (RMG) and textile sectors, who first came to the country in the mid-1990s, was honoured with honorary citizenship of Bangladesh on Wednesday for his outstanding contributions to the industry and Bangladesh economy. “His dedication and commitment do not have any boundary. He loves Bangladesh. He works for Bangladesh. He loves the nature of Bangladesh,” said Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus after handing over the citizenship document to Sung at the formal inaugural ceremony of the Bangladesh Investment Summit-2025 at a city hotel. The audience showed honour to the new citizen of Bangladesh amid claps, beaming with joy. The Chief Adviser said a big delegation from South Korea joined the Summit as Sung took initiative to show his new land of citizenship to the Korean investors. “This is your home, too. We will make this home a beautiful home.” “One behalf of the entire Youngone family – with 72,000 in Bangladesh and another 28,000 elsewhere, I am truly honoured and humbled to have this honorary citizenship,' Sung told the Summit, adding that “This is more overwhelming that Prof Yunus is giving the award to me.” Sung was one of five organisations and individuals honoured for their significant contributions to Bangladesh. Fabric Lagbe Ltd (innovation category), Walton, bkash (foreign investment), and Square Pharmaceutical (local company) were honoured with Excellence in Investment Award 2025. The Chief Adviser handed over the awards. bKash wins BIDA’s ‘Excellence in Investment Award 2025’ Baroness Rosie Winterton, UK's Trade Envoy to Bangladesh, Óscar García Maceiras, CEO of Inditex and Apex Footwear Limited Managing Director Syed Nasim Manzur spoke as the government wanted to know foreign and local investors’ views on the investment front. Advisers of the interim government, including Finance Adviser Dr Salahuddin Ahmed, Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain, Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin, Law Adviser Dr Asif Nazrul and Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), among others, joined the inaugural event.  SDGs Affairs Principal Coordinator Lamiya Morshed and Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam also joined the event where Special Envoy Lutfey Siddiqi welcomed all. Kihak Sung served as President of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) for the 2018-20 term. His meteoric rise in the textile arena is associated with the success of Youngone Corporation, over the years, as a pioneering investor in RMG and textile sector FDI which led investments both in Chattogram and Dhaka EPZs and lately in Korean EPZ. Youngone was the first investor in the textile and apparel export sector in May 1980 and has been a pioneer in female employment in the industry. Almost all other subsequent investors from Korea followed in Youngone's footstep to invest in Bangladesh. Its production of world famous brands has greatly enhanced the image of Bangladesh in the garment and textile sector, the press release said. Because of his invaluable contribution to the development of apparel and textile industry and the national economy of Korea, Kihak Sung was conferred upon the highest class of the "Order of Industrial Merit Gold Tower" by the President of Korea in 2008. Change Bangladesh, world doing business in land of crazy ideas: Dr Yunus tells foreign investors This was followed later by his election to the top post as Chairman of the Korean Federation of Textile Industries (KOFOTI), a post which he still holds. His dynamic leadership and steadfast policies led to the emergence of Youngone Corporation as one of the most reputable and recognised multinational companies which has successfully spread its wings across the globe in Korea, USA, Switzerland, Vietnam, China, India, Uzbekistan, San Salvador and Ethiopia.

Textile zone at the Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) in Chattogram will become a “textile hub” in Bangladesh bringing a lot of businesses if the required support is provided to "quickly and fully '' implement it, says the Youngone chief.   He said the five mega factories, if completed, will have a combined floor space of over 2,000,000 sft.   “Bangladesh needs to make a lot of efforts to produce and supply more manmade fibre (MMF) so that such a supply chain is established successfully here,” said South Korea-based global conglomerate Youngone Corporation Chairman and CEO Kihak Sung.  Also read: S Korea provides US$ 1 mn to IOM to support Rohingyas ... He said such efforts will help Bangladesh get a lot of businesses, not losing everything to Vietnam. “That’s my challenge now.” During an interaction at the KEPZ recently, Sung said they have a budget to invest another US$ 400 million of their investment. “As long as we’re competitive and customers can take our goods and they make a profit, then we can increase it (investment volume)." Youngone already started manufacturing polyester fabrics at the two latest state-of-the-art polyester product factories with a floor space of over 430,000 for each which will be expanded to two more similar units for export and supply of high-quality products to garments and apparel factories in Bangladesh as an import substitute and backward linkage. Read Textile backbone of Bangladesh’s industrial efforts: FM “We want to be really supportive of Bangladesh garment factories. We need to make raw materials, garments and everything here,” Sung said, adding that quality energy supply still remains the main challenge. He said they are applying for the generation of captive power in the KEPZ to meet "essential demand of quality" power supply for the sophisticated textile industries.