Spectacles producers seek govt help to explore EU market
BDNEWS,Dhaka
As a three-day international optical fair is underway in the city from Thursday, optical entrepreneurs sought government support to export to European Union and also expand local market. They also urged the government to appoint ophthalmologists in every upazila as only 3-5 percent, out of around 30 percent population of the country who need spectacles, are now being covered due to lack of experts. Bangladesh earned around US$ 100,000 in last fiscal through exporting frames and lenses to the Middle Eastern countries, especially in UAE and Kuwait, where Bangladeshi expatriates are doing business, according to official figure. Local industry is exporting quality optical lens, bi-focal glass, and frames of spectacles, industry sources claimed. "We want that the government should create export opportunity in EU where demand of spectacles is high," said Manjurul Huque Sikdar, president of Bangladesh Optical Industries and Traders Association (BOITA) while talking to BDNEWS Friday. He said every year spectacles fair is taking place in Italy and France where producers related to this industry throng from all over the world but local entrepreneurs cannot take part due to financial constraints. At present, China is the only dominating country from Asia in the field of spectacles export, said Manjurul, owner of the Skylarc, a spectacles industry in the country. Like other small-scale exporters Fazlul Hoque Jewel, senior vice president of BOITA, criticised EPB for not promoting spectacles export. "In China they are giving 35 percent incentive, but we get nothing," Jewel added. Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury dismissed exporters’ allegation. He said the government took programmes, including export diversification, simplification of export procedure and providing incentives to increase export earnings from the optical industries." But Vice President of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), the apex business body in the country, Abul Quasem Haider said, "Most of the businessmen in the spectacles industry are doing business rather than manufacturing." "Unless they do not start manufacturing, how they expect to increase export," he questioned. Barkat Ullah Bulu, advisor to the commerce ministry, said, "Once this industry was 100 percent import-oriented but now it is getting self-sufficiency." Bulu also felt the potentiality of the local industry. He said, "The government took plans and it will take time to implement them." Bangladesh produces some 3.5 lakh frames annually.
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