The government plans to bring all private export processing zones under Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) by ceasing the operations of a cell which now regulates private industrial parks. To this effect, the government will create a new framework to eliminate overlapping in the responsibilities of the Private EPZ Cell under the Prime Minister’s Office and boost the activities of private industrial estates, an official said yesterday. If it goes ahead, the Chittagong-based Korean Export Processing Zone, the lone functional private EPZ under the cell, would come under the authority of BEZA. KEPZ will not come under the purview of Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) as it regulates the activities of state-run industrial parks. At present, the cell, BEZA and BEPZA are all under the jurisdiction of the PMO. In 1996, the then Awami League-led government enacted the Private EPZ Act to help private companies set up industrial parks and woo investors on their own, and gave operating licences to two companies. But the Rangunia Export Processing Zone, owned by Chittagong Industrial Park Ltd, did not see the light of day. Only one private EPZ, which is KEPZ, was successfully set up. KEPZ was developed by Youngone Corporation, a South Korean company engaged in the manufacture and distribution of sportswear and shoes. More than 70 foreigners, mostly Korean, reside in the KEPZ, which employs about 10,000 workers and staff members. But an impasse between Youngone, the operator of the KEPZ, and the government has been going on for a long time over delays in transferring the deed of the land. The government has blamed Youngone for its failure to fully use the industrial land in the KEPZ. The government even plans to take back 2,000 acres of the 2,500 acres of land it allocated to the KEPZ in 1999. But the KEPZ authorities say it has not received support from the government as well as the local administration as promised. As of June this year, Youngone was able to develop more than 500 acres of the allocated land. It however cannot use more than 1,200 acres, as it has to set aside 52 percent of the land for plantation, open areas and water bodies. “At the private EPZs, we did not get the amount of foreign investment that we had hoped for,” said a top official of the BEZA. He said the concept of private EPZ has not taken off in the country because there has been no institutional authority to supervise them. The cell under the PMO also does not have enough workforce and capacity to supervise the activities of private economic zones. This prompted the PMO to be serious about the issue: it now wants to give an impetus to the private economic zone activities. Recently, the government instructed the BEZA to prepare a draft so that the authority and the private zones can be merged. The BEZA sent a draft of the planned law to the PMO yesterday, said another official. If the plan goes ahead, the BEZA will be able to extend institutional support to the KEPZ, which will allow Youngone to complete the unfinished task and attract more Korean investors, said the top official on condition of anonymity. Under the new plan, the Private EPZ Act of 1996 will be made void. Since its inception, the BEZA has licensed seven economic zones. Of them, four are private and the rest are under public-private partnership. The official said work on the Mongla economic zone is going on in full swing. Besides, Abdul Monem Ltd is developing another zone in Munshiganj, and a group of Japanese businesses have already shown interest in investing there. The government aims to establish 100 EZs in 15 years. The BEZA has so far approved proposals for 22 of them, with eight sites primarily selected. Meghna Group of Industries is building two EZs on 325 acres of land at Sonargaon upazila in Narayanganj. The BEZA has also handed over the first pre-qualification licence to AK Khan Company to build a 200-acre EZ in Narsingdi. Meanwhile, another BEZA official said China’s Zhejiang Jindan Holding Company has sought 300 acres of land from the government in Mirershorai, Chittagong to set up a coal-based plant with capacity of 1,200 to 1,400MW. It would not be a problem for the BEZA to provide the land as it has about 6,500 acres of land there, he said.
