The special economic zone authority is likely to start development work in 10 special zones within this month. Preliminary work has already started. The zone authority has selected 65 sites for developing special economic zones in four regions of the country. Out of 65, sites for 36 have already been selected. Nine special economic zones are being developed in the private sector. Abdul Monem special economic zone is almost ready now for investors. A total of 100 special economic zones will be constructed all over the country. The biggest and strategically located special economic zone is developed in Mirersarai in the district of Chittagong. The area of this economic zone is 30 thousand acres of land. The zone authority is planning to construct an airport there. Mirersarai economic zone is located 10 kilometres away from Dhaka-Chittagong highway and 65 kilometres away from Chittagong Port. The zone authority told The News Today that the foreign investors, especially the Chinese investors, are visiting the site to see the feasibility of relocating industries there. The Chinese ambassador in Bangladesh is likely to visit the site next week. Chinese investors are impressed about the location of Mirersarai economic zone and the facilities there. The special economic zone authority is contemplating creating 10 million jobs in100 special economic zones by the year 2021.The zone will be developed with one stop service facilities. The special economic zones will have all the infra-structures and utilities. The investors will find decision making process very quick. The developers, investors and facilitators will work unitedly in these special economic zones to attract investors. Bangladesh is required to accelerate investment to achieve more than 7 per cent growth to become a higher middle income country by the year 2021.The investment now falls short of the target. Presently, the investment is only 29 per cent of the GDP. The target should be 35 per cent of the GDP as investment to achieve more than 7 per cent growth. The foreign private investment is now 1.6 billion dollars that should be at least 6 billion dollars to achieve the goal set for the year 2021. Bangladesh has the edge over Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and China regarding wages. The wages in our country is almost half in those countries. This is one of the major advantages to attract the foreign investors. But the foreign investors will require to have uninterrupted supply of reasonably priced utilities including gas and electricity, quick decision making, improved law and order situation and political stability. The government will have to ensure these as a facilitators to accelerate investment. The activities of the export processing zones should be reviewed. The zone authority could take guidance from the successes and failures of the export processing zones that were set up in the 80’s. The special Zones authorities must take care of the challenges that may stand in the way of investment in the special economic zones. The challenges are developing adequate infra-structure facilities especially connectivity, uninterrupted supply of utilities, political stability, policy continuity and improved law and order situation. If these challenges can be overcome, the objective of the special economic zone is expected to be achieved. The targetted 10 million jobs will then be created in these zones. But all depends on accelerated rate of investment in these zones. If investors are not convinced about the favourable investment climate the programme may hit snag.
