Siemens BD plans for future investment

Present at the meeting were Dr Peter E Albrich, outgoing managing director of SBL, Klaus Wucherer, member of the corporate executive committee of Siemens AG, Rudolf Paul Klink, new managing director of SBL and Aftab Mahmud Khurshid, corporate communications and business development manager of SBL.

Dr Albrich mentioned that in his four-year tenure the business volume of Siemens in Bangladesh rose from 20 million Euro to 100 million Euro and emphasized on how Siemens now focuses on the power, telecom and transport sectors of the country as potential areas of investment. "Bangladesh faces power shortage and thus the power sector holds huge investment possibilities," states Dr Albrich.

The outgoing managing director also stated how Dhaka is at the focal point of the seven northeastern states of India and hopes that in a few years the rail link between Dhaka and Chittagong will be the heart of all Asian business activities. "Transportation sector of Bangladesh thus holds high hopes for investments from Siemens," Albrich pledges.

Dr Albrich further states that Bangladesh has only a 1.5 percent penetration rate in the telecom sector compared to some of the other Asian countries where it is over a 100 percent; but assures that in another 10 years this penetration is bound to go beyond 10 percent, thus promising another major field where Siemens will be actively taking part.

Remarking on the upcoming cell phone project of Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), Albrich mentioned how SBL recently signed a US$ 41 million deal with BTTB to provide the state-run organization with GSM and GPRS technology.

Mentioning past SBL activities in Bangladesh towards the growth of key infrastructure areas since the company's onset in 1956, Dr Wucherer states how SBL was the first direct foreign investor to manufacture telephone switches and sets in a joint venture with the government. "Our telephone exchanges still account for 40 percent of the country's installed capacity," said Wucherer, stating how major SBL clients in the information technology sector include BTTB, Sheba Telecom, the ministry of education, Bangladesh Computer Samity, Telephone Shilpa Sangstha, and the defense purchasing of Bangladesh. "We are also the key suppliers of transmission systems and network management systems to Grameen Phone," he states.

Wucherer assures that to meet growing needs of the country, SBL plans to further expand its operations and activities in the country in the near future. According to him, SBL is confident in providing its clients the right technologies and solutions to help the country build a promising future and a more developed nation.