A high-powered committee has selected China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) to develop an economic and industrial zone in Anwara of Chittagong, where some major Chinese industries are likely to be relocated. Officials said the committee recently submitted its report recommending the company eligible for developing the Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone under a joint venture. The state-owned company of China will develop the economic zone under joint venture with the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA). China Harbour will have 70 per cent stake in the EZ while BEZA holds the rest 30 per cent. The economic-industrial zone will be developed on government-to-government (G2G) basis as per recent amendment made to the relevant law. The BEZA will form a ‘special purpose company (SPC)’ to develop the zone. The Authority recently got approval from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for forming the SPC. BEZA executive chairman Paban Chowdhury said the Authority will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China Harbour before the start of work for the EZ development. “We hope Chinese industries will be relocated to the special economic zone. There will be power plant, chemical industries in the zone,” he said. In September last year, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the proposed Chinese Economic & Industrial Zone, which is one of a large group of EZs the government has planned. The zone will be set up on 774.25 acres of land on the seafront site at a cost of Tk 4.20 billion exclusively for Chinese investors. The move for setting up exclusive Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone came after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had proposed an industrial zone during her visit to China on June 6-11, 2014. After the developing of the zone, Chinese companies will be interested to invest more in Bangladesh and scope for employment will be created on the local job market that fails to provide a huge number of jobseekers, many of them higher- educated. Bangladesh will provide land to Chinese investors on a long-term lease under the arrangement.
