Dhaka BSM 2001

WELCOME ADDRESS BY SHRI MANI ALMAL PRESIDENT - IFCOMA AT HOTEL PURBNI
DHAKA - BANGLADESH ON 15-04-2001

Hon'ble Shri Benazir Ahmed,

President The Dhaka Chamber Of commerce & Industry.

Hon'ble Shri M.A.Sattar Bhuiyan, President BLLGFEA

Hon'ble Mr. Stephen John Davies, Managing Director
M/s, Bata Shoe Company Bangladesh Ltd.

His Excellency Mr Tripathi, High Commissioner -
Indian High Commission at Bangladesh

Mr.Nasim Manur MD. M/s Apex Footwear,
Members of association and chambers, Distinguished Guest,
Friends, Ladies & Gentlemen,

I, on behalf of Council for Leather Exports and Indian Footwear Components Manufacturers Association, welcome you all to this 1st BUYERS SELLERS MEET cum EXHIBITION of footwear components and accessories at Purbani Hotel, Dhaka. We are indeed grateful to Shri Benazir Ahmed, President, DCCI for being present here as our Chief Guest and sparing his precious time to inaugurate this BSM.

We are also happy to welcome Shri Sattar Bhuiyan, President BFLLFEA at this occasion. It has been the real good efforts of Mr Bhuiyan which has brought Bangladesh in the global fair calendar of leather & footwear by initiating and successfully organizing the Dhaka International Leather fair in the past repeatedly.

Our welcome to Mr Stephen John Davies - Mg. Director M/s Bata Shoe Company Bangladesh Ltd. In view of the long experience with the shoe unit, we feel the presence of Mr. Stephen and Mr. Ehsanuzzaman will give us the guidance & support in the further development of business in mutual interest.

Welcome to Mr.Nasim Manzur, Mg. Director M/s Apex Footwear Ltd. Mr. Manzur is dynamic and has very progressive outlook . We are grateful to him for his presence and the support in organizing this BSM here.

We are happy to have with us His excellency Mr. M.L.Tripathi, High Commissioner Of India, and let me say that we received extensive support from Mr Hamid Ali Rao Counselor (E & C) and Mr Avirachen, Second Secretary (E & C), CLE & IFCOMA has been able to organize this first BSM at Dhaka.

Sir, Council For Leather Exports under the Ministry Of Commerce, Govt. of India is an apex body for the promotion of leather, leather products, footwear and footwear components and IFCOMA, is an association of members producing components, accessories and other allied products from all over India.

I am happy to inform you that our concept of organizing BSM cum Exhibitions at all the footwear manufacturing centers spread all over the country in the tiny and small scale has been very successful. The main object is to "create awareness" and "direct linkage" amongst the buyers and sellers, tech experts, machinery suppliers, institutions and leather manufacturers so that smallest shoe manufacturers can know about the latest development taking place and up grade their quality and volume in line with the market demands.

It is in fact that the small, tiny and self employed manufacturers or even the technical experts, seniors of some shoe units are unable to spare time and or cost to visit the international fairs organized at long distances. They remain isolated for long time with the latest fashions and regular developments made by the component and machinery suppliers. Our these BSM is therefore targeted to reach as much nearest to them so that the awareness and linkage are created between all of them and the process of regular contacts with further development become their future activity. The idea is to change the mind set & expose them with the latest developments as it is they who have the largest share of state footwear production & catering to the need of common man.

With this BSM and Exhibition, we have been able to remove the monopolistic attitude & control the prices of shoe material at the retail levels and have been able to made quality components & accessories available to small shoe manufacturers at a very lower rates with better services at their doorsteps. This has proved and really helped in the up gradation of quality, volume and competitiveness of the large un organized shoe units spread all over the nation.

India produces 1800 million pairs of footwear wherein 800 million are leather and the rest are non leather footwear. The component sector is estimated of Rs.2000/- cr. leaving aside the upper materials. Let me inform you that India has the advantage of its own strong backward integrated industries. As a result, the component manufacturers say Plastic Last, would not have to depend on import of HDPE from other countries. So is the situation with most of other components and accessories like metal, paper, textiles, leather, rubber, chemicals etc. Apart from raw materials, India has strong demand of footwear, which is strength also to the footwear component sector. With the global opening and or cheaper imports in India, it is going to improve in the competitiveness and will better help in up gradation in the quality and volume for remaining in the market.

Sir, Bangladesh has also shown considerable growth in the production and mechanization of footwear industries in last few years. There has been up gradation in the quality of footwear both for domestic and for export market. It has very strong presence of quality leather and manpower and has today emerged amongst the footwear exporters to the developed countries. There is also a large unorganized footwear sector in Bangladesh, some where more than 3000 units and is estimated to be catering to more than 80% of the total state demand.

We can now a days see that footwear manufacturing has become more of an assembly shop today due to considerable growth in the component sector. One can buy ready to use component and accessories and assemble them as per design and this has been proving more economical in wider terms. Therefore, it is the better availability of components more important to boost the footwear quality and production of small units.

We both countries are closest and have many similarities and collectively with enough of Strength in leather, land and skilled manpower, it is therefore, I am of the view that we should look at our strength and concentrate on quality and volume productions with global out look. We should look at SAARC as one nation and plan the policy, duty structure and future development plan in a manner to make all of us stronger enough and rather become global player. Any delay will help other countries like China for dumping their products in our countries and destabilise the domestic units. An example of Europe - the Euro currency, single visa etc. is very much before us.

Looking in to our trade, there are three important issues, which is needs to be attended by all of us. One, the order and supplies must meet the quality and timely shipment, second, the removal of hurdles related to payment by bankers in India even against L/c and, the third, reduction of import duties to make the cost cheaper and the trade made accountable. Higher duty generally lead to smuggling of materials where in there is a big loss to any govt. it is therefore, the lowering of import duties which can make better availability of wide range of products and will improve the quality, volume and revenue too.

I am confident, during this Buyers Sellers Meet, new linkage will be created and efforts made to set up a bonded warehouse through which small and large scale footwear manufacturers can be provided with quality components and at a lower prices. This is elected to bring a total revolution in the quality footwear production in the organized and the large unorganized artisan level.

I thank the honorable guests here, the participants, friends, members of association press and media, and to all of them who have helped us and worked very hard to make this event a success,

Thanking you,
Mani Almal