A government move to form a single authority under Ministry of Industries (MoI) for facilitating industrialisation in the country has been shelved for a year due to bureaucratic complexities. The move has become stagnant in absence of necessary actions by the authorities concerned and lack of coordination among them, sources said. Earlier, the government has taken the initiative for accelerating the country’s industrialisation by upgrading industrial management to an international level, they also said. The upgradation has been seen as an imperative for the developing industries sector with foreign entrepreneurs coming to the country for exploring investment prospects here as well as for further expansion of domestic enterprises. A meeting was held in this connection at the Prime Ministers’ Office (PMO) on March 31. Principal Secretary Md Abul Kalam Azad presided over it, a PMO official said. Among others, representatives from MoI, Ministry of Commerce (MoC) and Ministry of Finance (MoF), Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA), and Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) attended the meeting, he also said. “A large number of industrial plots remained unused across the country. The government wants to use these lands for expediting industrialization, and so it has moved to form a single authority,” MoI Secretary Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the FE. The country’s economy is rapidly developing, mainly depending on export-oriented industrialization. The government should try to make the existing organisations like BEPZA and BEZA more effective for increasing pace of industrialisation in the country, opined experts. Bangladesh’s textile industry is the second largest in the world. The country is fifth in fish and seafood production. Other key sectors include pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, ceramics, leather goods and electronics. Besides, local telecom industry has witnessed rapid growth over the years following foreign investments.
