Ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh Masato Watanabe and Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) Major General Mohd Habibur Rahman Khan inaugurate a dormitory of OP-Seed Co (BD) Limited at the Chittagong EPZ on Monday. Ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh Masato Watanabe on Monday said the women of Bangladesh, like female community of Japan, would go forward in all spheres and move the country’s development programmes ahead. He was speaking as the chief guest at a ceremony on inaugurating a dormitory of OP-Seed Co (BD) Limited, a Japanese electronics manufacturer, for its female workers at the Chittagong EPZ. Appreciating the initiative for making female dormitory by a Japanese industry, the Ambassador said, “I am very much pleased to know that a Japanese company of EPZ has built the first female dormitory in consistent with the direction of Prime Minister of Bangladesh.” Mentioning the memorandum of understanding signed between BEPZA and JETRO he said, this agreement is contributing to increase the Japanese investment in the EPZs. Ambassador of Japan and Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) Major General Mohd Habibur Rahman Khan formally inaugurated the dormitory. The dormitory, located at Dampara, Middle Halishahar adjacent to the sector seven of CEPZ, will accommodate 800 female workers. This is the first female dormitory made by any enterprise of EPZ. Japanese envoy said that Bangladesh and Japan are two friendly countries. The relationship between the two countries became stronger through the visit of the two premiers to each other country. The two leaders agreed to take women forward in all sectors. In the inauguration ceremony, Executive Chairman of BEPZA thanked OP-Seed Co. (BD) Limited for building the dormitory in order to accommodate the female workers of the factory. He said, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the 33rd Board of Governors Meeting of BEPZA instructed the BEPZA to construct dormitories for the female workers of the EPZs either for living individually or with families. BEPZA has taken initiative to construct dormitory for accommodation of the workers of the EPZs in three ways- from the own fund, financing jointly by Bangladesh Bank and BEPZA and by the initiatives of the enterprises of the EPZs, he added. Op-Seed Co. (BD) Ltd has built this dormitory as part of the initiative following the instruction of Prime Minister. General Habib said that the workers would be benefited economically with the solution to their accommodation problem. They can focus more on production, which will increase their efficiency and productivity. Such kind of activities would indirectly play an important role in the overall development of the country. He requested the other investors of CEPZ to take similar initiative for making such dormitories. BEPZA Chief said, Chittagong EPZ is the pioneer EPZ of BEPZA. There are eight operating EPZs located at the different region of the country. The EPZs under BEPZA have gained a reputation as Bonanza for Investment, which reflected in the achievement during past few years. EPZs have achieved 147.76 percent growth in investment, 187.47 percent in export, 123.29 percent in creating new job and 44.14 percent in operating industry during the last seven years (2009-2015) comparing to the achievement of previous seven years (2002-2008). He also said, presently investors from 38 countries have invested US$ 3.75 billion in 453 operating and 59 under implementing factories and exported goods worth US$ 49.32 billion. 4,39,512 Bangladeshi nationals are working in the EPZs. Yasuhiro Nakashima, President of Koha Co Limited, the parent company of OP-Seed said that the workers of Bangladesh are potential and hard working. Expressing his satisfaction over operating business at industrial friendly production oriented peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the EPZs he credited BEPZA for it. He thanked the Executive Chairman of BEPZA for making a pocket gate for the workers to quick pass through the dormitory. The seven-storied dormitory built for the female workers consists of 108 rooms. There are separate cooking facilities and prayer rooms at the dormitory for every religion including Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Buddha and tribes so that they can live peacefully. Besides Ambassador’s wife, Country Representative of JETRO Kei Kawano, General Manager (Public Relations) of BEPZA Nazma Binte Alamgir, General Manager of CEPZ Khorshid Alam, General Manager of KEPZ S.M. Akhter Alam Mostafi and the high officials of OP-Seed & CEPZ were present in the inauguration ceremony. The Japanese including the other investors of the EPZ praised the activities of BEPZA at a discussion meeting held after the inaugural ceremony. Mentionable, 1082 workers are working in the OP-Seed Co. (BD) Ltd which started journey in June, 1997. Investment of the factory stands at $ 48.20 million as of December 2015. The enterprise exported electronics and electrical goods such as- LED Back Light, Multi LED Lamp, LED Pilot lamp, LED Selection Button, Vending Machine worth $ 39 million in 2014-15 FY to Japan Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Netherlands, China, and USA etc.
