The demand for fire safety and security equipment is rapidly growing in Bangladesh with the expansion of industrialisation. But the country is still highly dependent on imported products as the sector lacks investment.
Experts and industry insiders said there is an over Tk14,000-15,000 crore market and the country also has a scope to export the products after meeting domestic demand.
They said local investment in this sector will rise if investors get adequate policy support from the government.
The people engaged in this sector described that the growing domestic market for the equipment creates opportunities for local manufacturing.
But Bangladeshi entrepreneurs are not yet interested in manufacturing them mainly due to lack of awareness and government policies.
They want an amendment to the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) 2020 to facilitate taking preventive measures against fire incidents.
This would also help maintain fire safety compliance in factories, housing and public infrastructure including mega projects, the entrepreneurs said.
Talking to the Daily Sun, Managing Director of Grasshopper Group of Companies Mahmudur Rashid said they import fire safety products from different countries, including the US, Canada, the UAE, Singapore, China, the UK, India, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Spain.
He informed that 16,000-17,000 people are involved in this sector, of which more than 3,000 are engineers.
There are around 400 fire safety system providers and importers in the country, he added.
Rashid said, “High import duty is a key challenge in the industry. The government should provide all necessary support including duty cuts and incentives to attract investors. This is a big potential market.”
Pran-RFL Group’s senior manager (operation) Karim Firoz said that their company manufactures fire doors and fire hose cabinets in the country.
“We have a plan to bring a new product - fire pumps, in future. A lot of raw materials are required to be imported from different countries like Dubai (UAE) and China. But duty is high, which is a big challenge,” he said.
Firoz added that locally produced fire safety equipment meet only 5% of domestic demand. “Bangladesh lags behind in the industry as both government and private investors are not yet interested.”
Secretary General of the Electronics Safety and Security Association of Bangladesh (ESSAB) Zakir Uddin Ahmed said the domestic market for fire safety and security equipment is growing, which creates massive opportunities for local manufacturing.
“But recently, two local firms like Partex and RFL have started making fire-resistant doors,” he informed.
“Public-private partnership (PPP) initiatives can explore the market. We are ready to help investors here. So, policy is the main issue to bring more investment,” he said, recommending that the fire safety issue be included in the textbooks.
Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Senior Vice-President Md Amin Helaly said Bangladesh has an annual market worth Tk14,000-15,000 crore of fire safety and security-related products.
“The sector is very important to keep us safe from fire and earthquake incidents, and to ensure sustainable economic development,” he added.
Architect Iqbal Habib said using technology and harnessing data from every level is a must to monitor and manage city infrastructure, which aims to create a smart city and provide citizens with facilities.
He said if the soft copy of the building design is on the device, it will reach the fire fighters at the premises within a second.
“The PPP model will ensure a smart safety and security solution to make sure that fire incidents never happen,” he emphasised.
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