FROM KUALA LUMPUR: Bangladesh-origin Abdul Kader has been maintaining a business enterprise in Singapore since 1995. He is the chairman of Kader Cargo Service Singapore (Private Limited).

Besides, he has also been discharging his duty as a member of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce in Singapore.

Kader has plans to open an office of the Kader Cargo in Malaysia soon.

From then on, his cargo company will provide service in Malaysia too.

He came to Kuala Lumpur to supervise the progress in opening the wing as well as other related programs.

Kader talked to banglanews on Thursday about the Bangladeshi people in Singapore sitting at Bukit Bintang restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.

He said many of the popular Bangladeshi brands are available in Singapore market. But only Bangladeshi expatriates buy those products including juices and spices.

So, we get little amount of money from other nations.

We should do business with people of other nations including Chinese, India and Vietnamese.

He informed media, foreign people buy few Bangladeshi products, which are mostly confined among the Bangladeshi expatriates.

We cannot expand our business, he lamented.

According to Kader, the reason behind the absence of Bangladeshi products in multinational market is the lower quality of the products than from China and India.

For that reason, foreigners hardly use Bangladeshi products for second time.

Poor quality of packaging of Bangladeshi products is another reason, Kader thinks.

The another reason is the lack of proper weight, he added explaining that if a packet of Bangladeshi product shows 500g, in reality it carries 450g that is unthinkable to a foreigner.

We have another challenge of providing the products in time, Kader added saying more sometimes we get demand from the customers but cannot supply them.

It loses market too, he commented.

Born in Dhaka’s Nawabganj, Kader came in Singapore first in 1979 and worked in a shipyard. He started business in 1995 and gets success gradually.

He, along with his children and grandchildren, is a citizen of Singapore.

Criticizing the advertisement of Bangladeshi products, this Singapore-citizen said that we need multinational marketing of our products.

Unlike India and China, Bangladeshi products are advertised only in fellow community, he added.

He also criticized the cargo facilities in Bangladesh as most of the agro-products get rotten in ports.

He believes that Bangladesh will be successful in business when the products will be consumed by multination communities.

Presenting the current situation of Bangladeshi businesspeople in Singapore, Kader said that they have ownership of over 110 mini-markets in the country that has a fame of one of the progressive economies in the world.

Bangladeshi people also run 40 catering services, he added, Bangladeshi garment products are currently being sold in 30 shops.

Kader hoped for more cooperation from Bangladeshi government officials in expanding the horizon of local products.

BDST: 1530 HRS, SEP 27, 2014