Shah Alam Nur :Bangladeshi furniture makers have found a niche in producing hospital products encouraged by demand in the country’s booming healthcare industry, industry insiders say.They said, local companies have been manufacturing hospital furniture, now capable of meeting almost half of the domestic demand for furniture used in public hospitals and private clinics.Around 4,000 clinics and 8,000 diagnostic centres operate in the country with licences from the government, according to the Bangladesh Private Clinic and Diagnostic Owners Association data.”The increasing demand for hospital furniture has enoucraged us to manufacture such special items,” said KM Akhtaruzzaman, Chairman of Akhtar Group.He said, the demand for such items in the market is high, but in many cases, local companies cannot produce hi-tech furniture for want of adequate technicians and hi-tech machinery.He said, if the government provides training and lifts duty on import of machinery for making furniture needed in the healthcare industry, then companies will be able to meet large part of the domestic demand.The Bangladesh Furniture Shilpa Malik Samity, the trade group, said that local companies are now producing more than 50 types of hospital furniture including waiting room chairs, mechanical beds and ICU (intensive care unit) beds.Currently, furniture production has been growing more than 20 per cent year-on-year basis in the last couple of years.More than 25 big, small and medium companies are producing hospital furniture. Of them Otobi, Aktar Furnishers, Hatil Furniture, Brothers, Partex, Navana, Nadia Furniture and Unique Furniture Ltd have the major share in business.The market of medical furniture is about at Tk 500-600 million annually.”You will be happy to know that local companies are capable of supplying more than 50 per cent of our demand,” Selim H Rahman, President of Bangladesh Furniture Shilpa Malik Samity, said, adding the market is growing 15-20 per cent every year.”In the past, import was the only source. Now, the local furniture companies are producing these types of items,” he added.A Karim Mojumder, managing director of Nadia Furniture Ltd, said that manufacturing hospital furniture is an attractive business.”It is still a nascent area for us. Each year, hospitals and private clinics spend millions of dollars in foreign currency to import this type of furniture,” he added.He said the industry should develop skills of local workers and procure sophisticated machinery if it wants to boost production of specialised furniture such as ones for the healthcare industry. Dependence on import is gradually declining, he said, adding the country used to import 80 per cent of the demand, which has come down to 40 per cent.”If the present trend continues, we will be able to become almost self-reliant,” he said.
