Chittagong district administration has extended support to find out a government Khas land for setting up a garment village in Chittagong. Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Mesbah Uddin said that he would try his best to find out a Khas land where a readymade garment (RMG) village would be set up. He said that Chittagong needs to play greater role in exporting an RMG in near future in view of the US Dollar 50.0 billion RMG export target by 2021 which will help turn Bangladesh into a middle income country by that time. He said this as a team of garment owners led by first vice president of the BGMEA Moinuddin Ahmed (Mintu) made a courtesy call on the Deputy Commissioner at his office on Tuesday. Moinuddin Mintu said Chittagong played an important role till the recent past as its contribution to the national RMG export was 40 per cent. But now it has come down to nine per cent due to several reasons. The main reason is the scarcity of lands as the factories need to be relocated. The RMG sector in Chittagong requires a number of RMG villages to relocate factories from the residential areas. He said that the Chittagong City Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin has assured them of considering proposal of BGMEA leaders to offer the 11.6 acres of land owned by the Chittagong City Corporation at Kalurghat heavy industrial area for setting up a garment village. The BGMEA, however, needs more land for setting up a number of RGM villages in the city or in its outskirts and so they sought help of the local administration. The BGMEA leaders pointed out that there are a number of spacious government Khas lands just outside the city which can be used as garment villages. Newly elected vice president of the BGMEA Md Ferdous, director AM Mahbub Chowdhury, BGMEA former director Helal Uddin Chowdhury and director of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mahfuzul Hoque Shah also spoke on the occasion.
