The government is planning to build a leather village in Chittagong. Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) and Secretary of the government Paban Chowdhury disclosed this while inaugurating a three-day Chittagong Development Fair in the city today. The fair was organised on the occasion of the Home Coming of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the nation, at the fair venue at Chittagong MA Aziz Stadium. Chaired by deputy commissioner of Chittagong Shamsul Arefin, the event was addressed by special guest divisional commissioner of Chittagong Ruhul Amin, DIG of Police, Chittagong Shafiqul Islam, Police Super Nure Alam Mina, district commander of Freedom Fighters Chittagong district command Md Shahabuddin and Chittagong city commander Mozaffar Ahmed. Paban Chowdhury said Chittagong had economic potential but many businesses had left Chittagong for Dhaka on different reasons. “We want to restore that pride of Chittagong by setting up economic zones in Chittagong,” he said. He said that the government has started work on the development of 100 economic zones throughout the country and work on the development of such zones at Anwara and Mirsarai is going on. He said Chittagong was once a potential area for the leather industry but there were only two such industrial units in Chittagong now. These factories are not running up to their expected level. “Wait for two years. We are going to set up a leather village on 300 to 500 acres of land in Chittagong. Many industries will come up for investment in that leather village,” he said, adding that some 0.2 million young people would get employment there. The BEZA boss said that unemployment is a big problem for the rising young generation of the country. He termed unemployment a major problem of the country. Every year 2.5 million youths are entering the job market but only 0.2-03 million are getting jobs while the rest are left unemployed. The government plans to provide them with jobs through setting up 100 EZs, he said.
