We do business transparently, committed to serving the nation

Healthcare conglomerate JMI Group has attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) of $80 million from NIPRO Corporation, Japan. To mark the 12-year milestone of the

NIPRO-JMI joint venture, JMI Group’s Founder Managing Director Md. Abdur Razzaq, in an exclusive interview with The Business Post, said he wishes continuous support from the Bangladesh government and NIPRO Corporation to maintain the joint venture’s growth in the coming days.

How did you start your business in the healthcare sector, and what is the present status of JMI Group?

When we started our journey, almost 100 percent of medical devices had to be imported. Under the JMI Group, we started our very first company, JMI Syringes and Medical Devices, in 1999 as a joint venture with South Korea. There were only 50 employees during the inception while more than 7,000 people are now working at 42 entities under the JMI Group.

In our 23-year journey, JMI Group’s total investment has stood at Tk5,000 crore, including Tk 1,000 crore in FDI from Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and China. We are producing more than 200 types of medical devices and healthcare products.

Tell us about the 12-year journey of NIPRO-JMI joint venture.

Japanese conglomerate NIPRO Corporation joined hands with us in 2011 and has invested $80 million in Bangladesh’s healthcare sector so far. They started by investing in medical device manufacturing and later branched out into pharmaceuticals as well as healthcare service and product marketing.

Bangladesh ranked fifth in the world and first in Asia on the Nikkei Covid Recovery Index. Now the developed countries want to hear from us about the magic behind this success. It is a great pleasure for us that the NIPRO-JMI joint venture is one of the key players behind this success. We have produced and supplied auto-disable syringes to make the mass Covid-19 vaccination programme successful.

What is the main factor behind the continuous success of NIPRO-JMI joint venture entities?

NIPRO-JMI means quality. From the very first day, we have focused on quality production. We are also committed to our country’s healthcare sector frontliners to give them the best quality products. The NIPRO Corporation has closely scrutinised our management policy and corporate transparency and invested successively in multiple companies. That is why NIPRO-JMI has become a trusted brand both at home and abroad. Our motto is to do business transparently, and we are committed to serving the nation. To maintain the growth of the NIPRO-JMI joint venture in the coming days, I wish continuous support from the Bangladesh government as well as NIPRO Corporation.

What needs to be done to cut import dependency in the medical device sector?

It is a matter of great sorrow that Bangladesh’s medical device market is heavily dependent on imports despite having enormous potential for local manufacturing. This sector has the potential to not only manufacture products but also export them. But unfortunately, we are manufacturing to meet only 5 per cent of our local demand. There is an annual demand for medical devices worth Tk200 billion with a year-on-year growth of around 20 per cent in recent years.

This sector could become a crucial one for the country’s economy if provided with the required support by the government. Besides, the medical device manufacturing guidelines need to be updated, human resources have to be developed, and uneven competition has to be stopped.

What is your next plan for the development of Bangladesh’s healthcare sector?

We feel proud that Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has received the Vaccine Hero Award at the UN Headquarters in recognition of Bangladesh’s outstanding success in vaccination to immunise Children. We are one of the major stakeholders of this success. We are the pioneer in the production of auto-disable syringes in Bangladesh and have been the only supplier of such syringes to the government under the health ministry’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) in the last 15 years.

Now the government has a dream to ensure that no renal patient will die due to a lack of treatment. In line with the government, we are already working to make the dream a reality. We have established a modern, hi-tech, and sophisticated kidney dialysis centre to provide the latest technology-driven treatment to renal patients.

JMI Hospital Requisite Manufacturing has also expanded its healthcare services to kidney patients. It established several modern dialysis centres jointly with Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital, North Bengal Medical College, and Narail Foundation. It also has a big plan to establish joint venture dialysis centres countrywide with other renowned hospitals. In future, we have plans to set up such centres across the country where kidney patients will get world-class treatment at an affordable cost.