Dhaka, September 5:

A high-profile marketing mission from Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical industry is going on a fortnight-long tour to explore import-dependent Africa’s largely untapped market. A K M Nizamul Alam, export promotion bureau (EPB) director, will lead the 20-member delegation comprising officials and the sector representatives to six African countries — Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Sudan.

“We just can’t sit idle in the globalised world have to go to different countries with our products,” EPB vice-chairman Mir Shahabuddin Mohammad was quoted as saying. The Ministry of Commerce and EPB are jointly supervising the mission to take advantage of the market potential in African countries without manufacturing facilities, the daily Independent quoted an official as saying.

He said the delegation is scheduled to hold talks with the importers and senior government officials of the respective countries, and offer different packages on importing pharmaceutical products from Bangladesh. The pharma sector earned $12.69 million and $21.26 million through exports during 2003-04 and 2004-05 fiscal years, respectively, recording an export growth of over 67.53 per cent.

In the 2004-05 fiscal year, Bangladesh exported medicine items worth $102,000 to Libya, $78,000 to Sudan and $2,000 to Egypt, while countries like Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia have great untapped potential. Bangladesh currently exports pharmaceutical items to some 63 countries including the US, Britain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Greece, Spain and Brazil.

The sector has 232 registered pharmaceutical manufacturers, who mostly use imported raw materials. Lately, Bangladesh has been trying hard to expand its market abroad.