The planned garment industrial park at Gazaria in Munshiganj district seems a forlorn hope as Chinese investors are unwilling to invest in the project for high cost of land, sources said. Losing hope about the garment village in that area, factory owners are looking for alternative sites for building their export-industry units, they added. “What I can say is the possibility of setting up the garment park in Gazaria is almost zero,” President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Siddiqur Rahman told the FE. He said factory owners are not interested to buy land there at such high prices. “If we want to buy land there, we have to pay 1.6 times higher than the actual price, which we can’t afford.” Besides, Mr Rahman said, the area consists of mainly lowland-nearly 15-foot earth filling will be needed which involves the spending of a big amount of money. He said the government is setting up a number of economic zones across the country. “We are looking for lands there to shift our garment factories.” BGMEA vice-president Faruque Hassan told the FE the garment-village project was found to be non-feasible due to high cost of land. “So, we are looking for small pieces of land to shift the factories on our own arrangement. Besides, we are also talking to relevant government bodies to get land at low cost,” he said. “Ultimately the project has failed,” said Mr Hassan. He said the apex body of garment sector has asked its members to find lands in export- processing zones for relocating factories. The BGMEA signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chinese company Oriental International Holding (OIH) in June 2014 in presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Beijing for setting up the garment village. The industrial park was supposed to be built on 470 acres of land at an approximate cost of US$1.2 billion. The OIH, according to the MoU, was supposed to pay the government for procurement of land. Following the developments, OIH conducted a feasibility study but later found that the project would not be financially feasible for them after billion-dollar investment, BGMEA officials said. As such, the OIH is dillydallying in going forward with the project, they said. Sources said as the OIH is showing lukewarm interest in the project, the ministry of commerce at a recent meeting asked the BGMEA to consult Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) to get land for setting up factories there. An official of the BEZA told the meeting that the authority had so far identified lands for setting up 74 economic zones across the country. These economic zones, once established, will have modern utility facilities and will be suitable for setting up garment factories. He said establishment of some 30 more economic zones is also under consideration. There are more than 4,500 garment factories across the country where over 42 million people are working to make world-class apparels for foreign buyers. The initiative to set up a garment village was taken to provide all types of facilities under one umbrella to help further boost the sector. The industrial park was supposed to have roads, water, power and gas supply, telecommunications, effluent-treatment plant, transportation, hospital, hotel and factory sheds. Bangladesh is the second-largest apparel exporter in the world after China. In the last fiscal year, the country exported garment products worth over $28 billion.
