Another domestic firm is being awarded prequalification licence for establishing private economic zone at a cost of US$ 267 million, officials said. Aman Group is going to set up the EZ-sixth such special economic hub approved so far in the country under private sector-in over 90 acres of land in Narayanganj. The business conglomerate has developed 90 acres of land for the economic zone at present and will later develop more 60 acres. Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) is going to grant prequalification licence for the planned Aman Economic Zone this week, a BEZA official said. Aman Group Limited, which has industries related to cement manufacturing, poultry, cattle and fish feeds, packaging, foods and beverages, steel mills, power plants and shipyard, will host industries of same kinds from the private sector. Aman Economic Zone, well-connected to Dhaka and Chittagong, is situated four kilometres away from Mograpara Chowrasta under Sonargaon, Narayanganj. It also has convenient access through Meghna River. “The industrial zone is primarily has plan to create jobs for around 15,000 people after implementation of the project,” company Head of Brand Quazi Meshayet Hossain said. He said the economic zone will not meet only demand of domestic investors but also of foreign ones. BEZA Social Resettlement Expert Md Abdul Quader Khan said it would take at best six months to award the final licence to the Aman Economic Zone. He said BEZA has scrutinized Aman’s qualification very carefully and decided to award prequalification pass to the group. “There will not be any industrial unit in the residential areas anymore; all industries have to come under economic zones gradually,” he said. The concerns of ‘Aman Group’ are registered as a Private and Public Limited Company under the law of the land. The group came into existence in early 1984-85 though it operated in fields of trading and import-export business. “It was early 2000 when the group embarked upon setting up industries mainly labour-intensive ones and it is capable of contributing to GDP of the country,” Quazi Meshayet Hossain said. So far, the government has awarded work order for developing five economic zones to private-sector investors-one each to Bay Group, Abdul Monem Limited and AK Khan Group and two to Meghna Group.
