The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is preparing guidelines for appointing developers for establishing Economic Zones (EZs) across the country in a time-bound manner. Officials said the move has been taken in accordance with the Bangladesh Economic Zones (Appointment of Developer, etc) Rules 2014. The Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) under the PMO has prepared a draft of the guidelines for appointment of EZ developers, they added. On July 07, 2015, an inter-ministerial meeting with the Secretary of the PMO in the chair did the groundwork on drafting guidelines. The meeting had a detailed discussion, saw a power-point presentation and expressed opinions on the draft. The attendees expressed their opinions for more analysis and correction of certain points in the draft guidelines. In this connection, a five-member committee was formed to further enrich the EZ-developing guidebook. The committee is likely to submit a report regarding its work to the PMO by July 31. The rule 04 of the Bangladesh Economic Zones (appointment of developers, etc) Rules 2014 and sections 08 and 38 of the Economic Zones Act 2010 mention the necessity of such guidelines, a senior official of the BEZA said. “If the guidelines are finalised, the implementation of the proposed EZs will be expedited,” he added. “We have prepared a draft guideline aiming to implement the proposed EZs swiftly and properly,” Executive Chairman of the BEZA Paban Chowdhury told the FE Saturday over phone. He said five licences had already been issued for establishing EZs. Of them, four are private and one under Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Issuance of two more licences for development of EZs will be finalised within one month. The BEZA boss said they would issue request for proposals (RFP) for the two new sites as early as possible. Earlier, about 22 areas for establishment of EZs were approved by the Governing Board (GB) of BEZA. Some sites have been selected for eight more zones. Under the Economic Zones Act 2010, the government established the BEZA to regulate and oversee the new zones. BEZA in 2012 started working to establish economic zones in different areas of the country having the potential to contribute to a boost to the national economy.
