The government has not yet made any economic zone ready in three years since it has taken such move to attract both local and foreign investments. Among the selected lands in different parts of the country, not a single zone is yet to come under operation amid growing scarcity of lands. However, Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), the government’s agency to develop and deal economic zones, has selected Powerpac, a private firm, to develop the Mongla zone.Lands were also selected for Sri Hatta zone in Moulavibazar and other zones in Anowara and Mirsharai in Chittagong, Ishwardi in Pabna, Sherpur and five other districts.A senior BEZA official said, “We have almost completed offsite developments of the Mongla economic zone and after its completion we will hand over the lands to the selected private party who will develop infrastructure and invite parties for investments.”He said it will take some time as it is a matter of lengthy process. Except Mongla, the government is yet to advance with its other zone sites as per expectation. Hariprasad Paul, BEZA’s Executive Member for Admin and Finance, said, “We are going ahead with our selected sites and there were a lot of developments in the last two years. “He said progress in Mongla and in SriHatta is better than others. Paul said two private economic zones at Sonargaon in Narayanganj, which are under BEZA supervision, will come into operation within six months. The government has allowed Meghna Group, a leading local conglomerate, to build two economic zones on 325 acres of land at Sonargaon. The zones are Meghna Economic Zone on 245 acres and Meghna Industrial Economic Zone on 80 acres.BEZA came into being in 2010 under the Bangladesh Economic Zones Act. Such an authority was deemed necessary when the government decided not to build up any export processing zone more under the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA). BEZA aims to establish economic zones in all potential areas in Bangladesh including backward and underdeveloped regions with a view to encouraging rapid economic development. The authority also facilitates setting up of special economic zones under government-to-government negotiations and till today a good number of proposals from different countries have been scrutinised.
