Hossen Sohel: The news of Japan Tobacco acquiring Akij Group’s tobacco business for $1.48 billion in what would be the biggest ever single foreign direct investment in Bangladesh has irked the anti-tobacco activists, reports bdnews24.com.
PROGGA, which leads anti-tobacco groups in Bangladesh, said Japan Tobacco’s presence will “increase the risk of public health since the company will invest a huge amount of money to market their lethal products”.
“This is also contradictory to the prime Minister’s call to free Bangladesh from tobacco menace by 2040,” said ABM Zubair, executive director of PROGGA.
Japan Tobacco is expanding in Bangladesh “because its cigarette sales in Japan has decreased. It happened in all developed countries. So they are taking the chances of developing market which is less regulated”.
Core revenue for the domestic tobacco business in Japan fell by 5.1 percent last year.
“Note that Japan Tobacco is duplicitous. It talks about a ‘safer alternative’, in reality, it is aggressively increasing its cigarette markets in developing countries like Bangladesh,” Zubair said.