Mr Uzzal Dhar and Chinese citizen Mr Peter, now in their mid-30s, had planned to start a business in 2014 at a time when they were studying at Buckinghamshire New University of the UK.
They were inspired by the BCIM, a proposed economic corridor of four emerging economies-Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar-meant for connecting India and China through Myanmar and Bangladesh.
In the course of time, both the Bangladeshi and Chinese students became close friends from mere acquaintances in the classroom. They started visiting each other's country during vacations.
They never forgot to discuss their business plan whenever they got time. When the discourse on BCIM came to the fore, it gave them an opportunity for 'brainstorming.'
They started thinking of Bangladesh, seven sisters of India, Myanmar and Kunming of China. It is a geographical area where more than 1.0 billion people live. The size of the population is more than double that of the 27-member European Union (EU) bloc.
The peoples' purchasing power in the region has been increasing on the back of consistent economic growth, especially in Bangladesh, partly because of growth in the manufacturing sector and the inflow of remittance.
With a population of 170 million, Bangladesh has been maintaining over 7.0-per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in the past five years to 2020, according to Bangladesh's national statistical organisation BBS.
After completing their MBA in the UK in 2016, majoring in international business, they both returned home. But communication between them never ceased, rather it strengthened through Wechat, a popular Chinese social network platform, a clone of Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook.
Finally in 2020, the duo established a company in Chattogram, the port city of Bangladesh, pooling their abilities and interests. This city borders Myanmar and some northeastern states of India.
They named their joint venture 'The Sino-Life Global Industrial Limited (SLGIL).'
Kunming of Yunnan Province sits at a distance of just 2,400 kilometres from Chattogram by road (currently there is no road connectivity).
The factory is located in the north-eastern part, namely Oxygen area, of Chattogram city on 10,000 square feet of land. It is just 10 kilometres off the Chittagong Port, the largest seaport of Bangladesh.
However, they have another local partner, Mr Mofizur Rahman. He was made chairman of the SLGIL.
The objective of the firm is to manufacture door hinges and its allied products initially for Bangladesh's market.
SLGIL is now producing stainless steel hinges and screws. Such firms usually produce a wide variety of materials for doors and furniture of residential buildings.
With the rapid growth in the economy of Bangladesh and massive urbanisation, the market of both residential buildings and furniture is also expanding fast.
They actually wanted to focus on what was clearly becoming an important part of the societal changes taking place in Bangladesh rapidly.
Mr Uzzal Dhar, managing director at the SLGIL, told the FE that they could see a clear picture of changes in the society, when it comes to residential buildings and commercial buildings.
He said the earthen homes or mud houses which were dominant in rural areas were being transformed into brick-and-mortar structures, providing better living experience. It happened, of course, on the back of economic development in the country.
"We want to explore our market initially in Bangladesh that we believe is expanding fast", Mr Dhar said.
Door hinges, handles, nails and other allied products are key hardware materials for buildings, the market size of which is nearly Tk 10 billion in Bangladesh. A standard-size apartment needs to be fitted with hinges for doors costing at least Tk 4,000, industry people who are familiar with the matter have told the FE.
This is a small and medium enterprise (SME) category factory involving an investment of over Tk 500 million (50 crore). It employs approximately 50 people, including Mr Hu, one Chinese expert. The firm is offering its chief technician Mr Hu a compensation package worth US$ 1,000 monthly, excluding accommodation, food and other fringe benefits.
This is a unique enterprise in Bangladesh. They use stainless steel, a raw material imported from China.
Currently, these hinges, screws and other allied products are imported largely from China and then from India.
The-state-of-the-art factory has the yearly capacity of producing 50 million door hinges. The brand name is Lily Life that is named after Bangladesh's national flower Shapla or water lily.
Mr Peter, Chinese name Jailin Dong, has 50 per cent stake in the venture while the rest belongs to the two Bangladeshi partners including Mr Uzzal.
Chinese people usually keep two names, one Chinese and the other is English name.
Mr Peter is from Ningbo, a sub-provincial city of Zhejiang province. His family has a long tradition of business headquartered in Ningbo.
His family is involved in making different types of machinery having trade ties with Europe and other parts of the world.
On the other hand, Mr Dhar hailing from Sathkania Upazila of Chattogram was almost empty-handed but had the passion for becoming an entrepreneur. He partnered with Peter. The Chinese friend gave him machinery and technological support while Mr Dhar managed other things in Bangladesh.
"To become an entrepreneur in Bangladesh, capital is very much important, but I inherited nothing after death of my father in 1996," Mr Dhar said. His voice choked up.
The six-year planning for starting a business, however, took a hit from the Covid-19 pandemic, first identified in Wuhan of China.
The virus started to infect local people last March. Its impact was clear in the society. The government announced general holiday since March 26, halting economic activity almost for two months until May 30, 2020.
"We postponed our plan to launch our factory in March in 2020, although we hired some people for starting commercial production that time", said Mr Mofizur Rahman, chairman of the SLGIL.
The company, however, paid its hired workers and technicians without work during the peak time of Covid-19 in Bangladesh, Mr Rahman said.
But, six months later in August, 2020, Sino Life started commercial production. It started producing door hinges on a limited scale initially, considering slow economic recovery in Bangladesh.
The government announced stimulus packages worth over Tk 1.0 trillion (100,000 crore) to boost the domestic economy. The money market has adequate liquidity and the economists believe that with the people having spending power, they will first buy real assets-land and apartments.
The real estate sector has started improving in the wake of the fiscal stimulus that has boosted domestic demand. Consequently, the demand for hinges and its allied products are also on the rise.
The SLGIL now produces 3-inch, 4-inch and 5-inch stainless steel hinges with screws for the local market. And they have started winning hearts of the consumers within a short span of time.
It started with a supply of 2,000-3,000 cartons of hinges initially. But its demand is now increasing day by day.
Even many real estate companies have contacted them for bulk orders but they cannot meet the demand due to its production on a limited scale.
To cope with the growing demand, the SLGIL is now expanding its plant size by more than 50 per cent in the same area.
Mr Peter, a director at the SLGIL, said the demand could increase further after full recovery of the economy.
Bangladesh's real estate is growing at a double-digit rate and its contribution to the economy is around 8.0 per cent. The domestic furniture industry is witnessing an upward trend. The export of wooden furniture is also increasing every year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
To cope with the growing demand and produce more hinges of finer quality, the small firm has planned to use robots that will quicken the output.
"This will be the first robot-based factory in Bangladesh in the production line of hinges and allied products", Mr Peter noted.
Robots offer much more perfection than human beings in manufacturing different products.
The company said they would produce bolts and nails shortly, two more additions to its real estate accessories, as part of efforts to diversify products and expand the plant capacity.
But the infant industrial unit is now facing a major threat from imported items. The local market is flooded with imported products. Besides, higher taxes on import of raw materials are also dealing the firm another blow, the entrepreneurs have said.
They now pay some 39 per cent in VAT, AIT and others types of taxes on imports. Such higher tariffs erode its competitive edge. Small ventures like Sino Life also do not get any funding from the banking system, they have said.
However, local traders said production of the stainless steel door hinges would benefit the end-users as the SLGIL products were selling at least 10-15 per cent cheaper than the imported ones.
They said fluctuation of the exchange rate against dollar in the forex market was also making the imported products costlier in the local market.
"We think this is a good initiative as it will ensure competition in the market," said Omio Ranjan Chowdhury, president of Chattogram Hardware & Machinery Merchants' Association.
On the other hand, a trader in Dhaka said that consumers were being cheated by some dishonest traders passing substandard products as German or Japanese items.
"This local production will enhance competition and reduce the unethical practices some traders resort to," said Md Naser, a trader at Nawabpur Road in the capital city.
However, there is more scope for such investment in collaboration with Chinese counterparts in Bangladesh to boost light engineering products that will help raise export receipts.
The wages are increasing in China and the small entrepreneurs have limited scope to invest there, as China prefers the 'economies of scale' to be competitive in the global market.
"Suppose, RMB 10 million in China is nothing but it is equal to Tk 120 million in Bangladesh. And such an amount in the local currency is a matter in Bangladesh,"said Mr Dhar.
The young entrepreneur has said there is a major problem: Chinese entrepreneurs do not know much about Bangladesh's potential market. "Even they know much better about Myanmar," he commented.
China is a member of the ASEAN plus six. Bangladesh looks to join the Southeast Asian economic bloc ASEAN.
The 10-member ASEAN's intra-regional trade is much higher than in any other economic bloc and it may rise further, a local economist believes.
The entrepreneurs think Bangladesh as an emerging economic power has a huge opportunity to grab markets in the ASEAN, as labour is still cheap here. The cost of living is also low in Bangladesh.
Abdur Razzak, president at Bangladesh Engineering Industry Owners Association (BEIOA), a group of light engineering product manufacturers, said that the particular area of hardware manufacturing remained untapped and still a 'greenfield'.
"99-per cent of the market is import-based, either from China or India," Mr Razzak commented.
He said the overall size of Bangladesh's light engineering market might be around Tk 300 billion and around 80 per cent of it was grabbed by imports from abroad.
He said the global door hinge market was estimated at nearly $2.5 billion and it would surge to $3.5 billion by 2024.
Considering its huge export and local markets, Mr Razzak said such a new enterprise needed nursing through policy support.
He said such enterprises needed protection initially in view of achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Mr Razzak said the global light engineering market accounted for around $7.0 trillion or one-third of the world's biggest economy-the USA.
"We can grab one per cent of it or $7.0 billion in exports, only by encouraging such small enterprises."
Mohd Habibur Rahman, technical adviser at the BEIOA, said there was a huge opportunity to export such products to seven sisters of India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and African nations.
"I think the existing duty on imported raw materials meant for production of such light engineering materials should be rationalised in order to protect the local infant industry," Mr Rahman added.
jasimharoon@yahoo.com