According to media reports, the initiative was discussed at a bilateral meeting held at the BGMEA Complex in Dhaka’s Uttara area on 4 August, where leaders from both organisations explored strategies to strengthen business ties and promote technology transfer.
The BGMEA delegation was led by its president, Mahmud Hasan Khan, while OCAIB was represented by vice presidents Lisa Lou and Vivian Huang, executive director Steven Zhang, and secretary Tina Hu.
During the meeting, Chinese representatives noted that many Chinese firms are interested in establishing operations or transferring technology to Bangladesh’s RMG sector but face challenges due to a lack of accessible, reliable information about local business opportunities.
They requested BGMEA’s assistance in providing comprehensive factory data and facilitating introductions to potential local partners.
In response, BGMEA’s president said the association intends to reach out to its member factories to identify businesses seeking foreign investment or joint ventures.
Factory owners, whether operating, non-operational, or seeking to sell shares or entire plants, will be asked to submit detailed information on their facilities, available infrastructure, and desired forms of partnership, BGMEA said.
The association will then review these submissions and share relevant profiles with OCAIB to enable targeted matchmaking between Bangladeshi manufacturers and interested Chinese investors.
BGMEA stated that the overall objective is to establish a business matchmaking platform to facilitate partnerships, promote the reopening of shuttered or struggling factories through new capital and technology, and attract investment into upstream or backward linkage industries critical to Bangladesh’s garment sector.
This follows an earlier meeting between BGMEA and OCAIB on 11 July, which focused on strengthening bilateral investment opportunities in the RMG sector.
The previous discussions also covered areas such as technical modernisation, renewable energy expansion, carbon trading, policy environment improvement, and the integration of artificial intelligence tools to enhance the competitiveness of Bangladesh’s apparel exports.
