The development path of Chinese textile enterprises in Bangladesh

More than 20 years ago, Zhuang Lifeng, a native of Quanzhou, China, went to Bangladesh to start a business. Since its development in 1997, the Lidchen Group he founded has owned many enterprises in Bangladesh including weaving, dyeing and finishing, printing, clothing, and shoemaking. Zhuang Lifeng is working hard to “build the dream” of Bangladesh, and building a century-old enterprise is his dream.
Today, his company has 13,000 Bangladeshi employees, and the modern garment factory he founded is about to be completed. Walking through Zhuang Lifeng’s new factory area, one feels like traveling back in time. The modern factory is in sharp contrast to the common rural scenes in Bangladesh, such as the narrow and crowded streets outside the factory area.
Zhuang Lifeng said: “In 1997, I rented a site in Dhaka to set up my first factory and encountered many difficulties. In 2006, I bought land to build a factory myself, but there was still a gap between it and an advanced factory. In 2012, I started Think about how to build a first-class factory.”
In January 2014, the tenth parliamentary election in Bangladesh ended, and the turbulent political situation in the previous year stabilized. In this year, Zhuang Lifeng also started the construction of his new factory area. After two and a half years, the modern and digital factory he envisioned is becoming a reality.
The buildings in the new factory include production buildings, storage buildings, administrative offices, staff dormitories and schools. In the five-story warehouse building, there is an advanced warehouse management system imported from abroad. The original warehouse operation team of hundreds of people has been reduced to less than 100 people. Although labor costs in Bangladesh are low, Zhuang Lifeng believes that if you plan to build a century-old enterprise, it is very appropriate to use such advanced equipment.
The first floor of the warehouse building is very large, but there are very few people inside. Only a few people are seen debugging computer equipment on site, and workers are using forklifts to send clothing raw materials to the conveyor belt, and then the conveyor belt is sent to the designated location for storage. Zhuang Lifeng said that the warehouse is all digitally managed, and each piece of goods has its own code, and even a button can be easily found wherever it is.
The warehouse is also equipped with an advanced air induction fire protection system, with one sprinkler head every three square meters. When a problem occurs, it will be solved within three square meters without affecting other areas. Zhuang Lifeng explained that such a large investment is to reduce waste and improve efficiency.
Zhuang Lifeng thought of many ways to make good use of the rich local labor resources. In the newly built factory area, the administrative office building has a floor dedicated to employee training. At the same time, in order to allow local employees to save time at work, two modern residential buildings with more than 10 floors that are about to be completed in the factory area will provide accommodation for hundreds of corporate employees and their relatives, and the rent is only 60% of the surrounding prices. Zhuang Lifeng said that such investment is to enable local employees to regard the company’s career as their own and achieve long-term and stable development. He also plans to build a school next to the factory to provide education for the children of local company employees.
After a long period of OEM for internationally renowned brands, Zhuang Lifeng’s company began to explore the creation of its own brand. The group’s “Panda” shoes are products targeted at the Bangladesh market, and other self-owned clothing brands plan to enter the Chinese market in the second half of 2016.
As a Chinese entrepreneur who manages tens of thousands of Bangladeshi employees, Zhuang Lifeng describes his relationship with local employees as a win-win relationship. He said that we should not always think that we are entrepreneurs and provide job opportunities to local people. “We must realize that we are also relying on them to make money and develop.” Regardless of whether you are rich or poor, you must treat each other as equals when interacting with local people. Let employees develop together with the company and share the fruits of development.
In recent years, the number of Chinese-funded enterprises looking for business opportunities in Bangladesh has increased rapidly. When asked what advice he had for latecomers to invest and build businesses in Bangladesh, Zhuang Lifeng said that when domestic companies decide to come to Bangladesh for development, they should have long-term plans and not run the business with the idea of ​​​​speculation and making quick money. market; it is necessary to promote localized management and focus on the cultivation of local talents, because the use of local talents will bring great benefits to the development of the enterprise. Finally, he suggested that companies should abide by local laws and regulations and respect local customs and religious etiquette.