FELB Korea (President Lee Hee-jae), a logistics company based in South Korea, announced on September 21 that it is going to establish a local corporation in Dhaka, which is the capital of Bangladesh, in the second half and provide a complete online and offline logistic and distribution solution.
Bangladesh, which has 150 million mobile device users and 100 million internet users, is seen as a post-Vietnam as its GDP has been increasing by 6 to 7% every year since 2010.
“Because Bangladesh does not have an international South Korean freight forwarder, many South Korean companies based in Bangladesh are having various difficulties.” said Park Kyung-hee who is the executive director for FELB Korea. “Communication issues can occur between companies due to absence of an international standard multimodal freight service and it is unclear where the responsibility lies and how expenses should be claimed when there are issues.”
Executive Director Park also added that the company started an international logistics business in Bangladesh by setting up a local office in order to support South Korean companies in Bangladesh and that the company is planning to establish a local corporation in Dhaka in the second half after working with local logistics companies to figure out marine transportation and air transport and export and import customs clearance.
He elaborated further by saying that there is a growing number of consumers along with the expansion of Bangladesh’s e-commerce market in the English-speaking world of Bangladesh that has high educational fervor and plenty of manpower and that FELB Korea would provide a complete online and offline logistic and distribution solution applied with mobile services.
FELB Korea is currently looking into setting up a cold chain (frozen and refrigerated goods) center that will be necessary according to improvement in the standard of living in Bangladesh near Dhaka along with the Bangladesh Government.
“Although multinational logistics companies such as FedEx and DHL are present in Bangladesh, there has yet to be any proper 4PL logistics provider.” said Kwon Soo-hyeon who is the head of FELB Korea’s local office in Bangladesh. “By strengthening partnership with local companies, we are going to become the first South Korean company to develop a national shipping service provider in Bangladesh centered on Chittagong and Dhaka.”
Kwon elaborated further by saying that the company is planning on a shipping automatic tracing service in order to eliminate inconvenience rising from frequent change in transshipment schedule of Port of Chittagong and that there will be a great synergy from exporting cosmetic products, food, dietary supplements, baby products, synthetic resins, steel plates, agricultural pesticides, and telecommunications and importing clothes, shows, shrimps, and jutes.
FELB Korea was established in 2009 as a South Korean corporation of an Australian logistics company FELB and it has pioneered markets globally by commercializing Eurasia’s first railroad transport block train. Since 2013, it has been acting as a South Korean trading agent of ITOCHU Logistics that is a logistics subsidiary of one of Japan’s five major general trading companies called ITOCHU Group. Some of its major customers are IHI, LG Hitachi, Faurecia, Hyosung, Dongsung Metal, Dole Korea, UCC Cofee Korea, Fila, Descente Korea, and Vuokkoset Korea.
Staff Reporter Lee, Joonhee | jhlee@etnews.com