The bashundhara group of companies started off as a real-estate venture known as "Bashundhara" under the aegis of the group's first concern-the east-west property development (pvt) ltd. This project turned out to be very successful and had helped foster the growth of trust and confidence of the urban people in "Bashundhara". Dhaka's burgeoning population, combined with a conspicuously slow growth of housing-LED to the landmark success of bashundhara.
Driven by the ramifications of this success, bashundhara geared up to invest in new fields, including manufacturing and trading. More enterprises were established in the early 1990s, covering diverse activities involving the production of cement, paper and pulp, tissue paper, steel, lpg bottling and distribution, and a trading company, among others. All these had happened in a span of less than 10 years. During this period, additional schemes on land development and real estate were launched and these focused more sharply on increasing responsiveness to client needs. At present, the group employs over 3500 people. The group's first publicly-traded company, the meghna cement mills limited, is currently listed on the two stock exchanges of Bangladesh.
The group now has 14 major concerns located in different areas of the country. The most-recent addition to the group is a multi-faceted shopping mall-cum-recreation centre called the Bashundhara city (bcdl) the bcdl is one further step in our longstanding effort to strengthen our links with the general public through the unique offering of commercial operations and recreation facilities under one roof. It houses theme parks, food courts, multi-screen cinemas, fitness centres, space for over 2800 shops, basement-level parking for over a thousand vehicles, skating and bowling rinks, a supermarket, and office space spread over several floors.
The group has come a long way in reaching these goals by listening to client needs, learning real-time lessons from past projects, innovating and partnering. Through major investment undertakings, Bashundhara has meaningfully contributed to the economy's stability in financial and capital markets. Underlying all of the group's activities are the common threads of change, flexibility, and fostering closer ties with the government, the city corporation and our clients. Most of its projects have been success stories-this fact alone is enough to justify a sense of confidence in the group's future.
Bashundhar took initiative to established the paper mill in Bangladesh in private sector for the first time. Now we have three paper mill in our country. We are the market leader in Bangladesh in-terms of production capacity and product variety.