Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith expressed such remarks after inaugurating the newly built Walton Compressor Plant at the Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd. premises at Chandra in Gazipur on Thursday (April 6, 2017).
With the inauguration of the plant, Bangladesh has emerged as the 15th compressor manufacturing country in the world while 8th in Asia. In the context of quality, Walton Compressor is one of the two top brands in the entire world, authorities claimed.
The Walton authorities said the annual production of the compressor plant will be 4 million pieces. They are moving ahead with the target of increasing the annual production capability to 12 million in next five years. The major portion of these compressors will be exported to international market. The Bangladeshi brand has already received remarkable supply order.
Praising Walton for such giant initiative, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said, when I first came here in 2013, I told them if they could go for compressor production. They have done it in four years and I have come here to celebrate it.
Walton is an example to other industrial companies, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, BASIS President Mustafa Jabbar said, Walton is fully prepared to manufacture multi-layer motherboards in the country. I hope Walton will start producing various digital devices including multi-layer motherboards by the end of this year. However, supportive Tax and Vat policy is needed for that.
He called upon the government to increase duty fees on imports of complete laptop from other countries in the budget for 2017-18 fiscal to help the expansion of digital device manufacturing industry in the country.
Earlier in the morning, upon his arrival at Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd. & Micro-Tech Corporation premises, the Finance Minister was cordially received by Vice-Chairman to Walton Group S.M. Nurul Alam Rezvi who welcomed him with bouquet.
Directors to Walton Group S.M. Shamsul Alam, S.M. Ashraful Alam, S.M. Rezaul Alam, S.M. Monjurul Alam, Tahmina Afrose and Raisa Sigma Hima were present on the occasion.
Executive Directors to Walton Group Abul Bashar Howlader, SM Zahid Hasan, Md. Humayun Kabir, Ashraful Ambia, Alamgir Alam Sarker and Md. Sirajul Islam, Senior Operative Director Uday Hakim, Operative Director Engineer Golam Murshed, Senior Additional Director Shahajada Selim and Additional Director Firoj Alam were also among other top Walton officials present.
After his arrival, the Finance Minister and his entourages enjoyed a corporate documentary of Walton. They also visited the well-decorated product display centre of the country’s leading brand.
The Finance Minister also launched a website that features information and pictures of Walton compressor. He and his entourages then visited various production units of the newly inaugurated compressor plant.
Mentionable, the Walton Compressor Plant has been established on 1.6m square feet area at the Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd. premises at Chandra in Gazipur with separate departments of still, zinc, alluvium, copper crusting and foundry, testing and metal processing system and R&D (research & development).
