Saudi cable producer Riyadh Cables Group Company (RCGC) has expressed interest in expanding its corporate footprint in Bangladesh as a high-powered RCGC delegation completed a 6-day visit to the South Asian country on Oct 17, reports Arab News.
RCGC exports its electricity cables worldwide and is the fourth largest electric cable producer in the world.
According to the English daily, the RCGC delegation comprising its business development manager Engineer Moaaz Ali Younes, marketing director Bassam Maes, visited different government agencies in Dhaka with a view to exploring investment opportunities.
During their meeting with officials of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) on Wednesday, the RCGC delegation expressed potential interest in investing in the overhead electricity cable producing sector of the country, reports Arab News.
“We had a successful discussion with the RCGC, although it is still at a primary level. We have briefed them about all the benefits for the foreign investors ensured by the Bangladesh government,” BIDA Director Mohammad Ariful Hoque was quoted by Arab News as saying.
Hoque said that after returning to Saudi Arabia the RCGC will move forward with the investment proposal and submit the final idea to the Bangladesh embassy in Saudi Arabia.
“Most probably, it is going to be a joint venture form of investment with the state-owned Eastern Cable Company. If everything goes well, we hope the investment will start coming into Bangladesh by next year,” Hoque said.
“The amount of investment from RCGC is yet to be finalized. However, we can expect it will be around $30 million,” Arab News quoted another anonymous source from BIDA.
Bangladeshi economists said they welcomed the investment proposal from RCGC, stating it will work as a “confidence builder” and create a “signaling value” among other foreign investors.
Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank in Dhaka, said that Bangladesh’s economy was expanding at a very fast rate and there was a huge internal demand for overhead cables for building new transmission and distribution lines.
“This new investment will help the country in rebuilding the image crisis in terms of FDI (foreign direct investment). We are still not doing very well in attracting FDI. If this sort of foreign investment starts coming here, it will definitely boost the economy at a significant level,” Hussain was quoted by the daily as saying.