The government has given Tk7 crore loan to Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) for earth filling of Sylhet Economic Zone land, officials said. The interest rate of loan is 6% to be paid in equal installments in 15-year period, according to Finance Division. The division issued a letter yesterday on providing loan to BEZA for development of Sylhet economic zone land. After development of the land, the land price of Sylhet Economic Zone will be increased keeping consistency with demand of the local land, officials said. Finance Minister noted: “There is a difficulty in setting up the Sylhet Economic Zone due to the problem of land price.” According to the letter, the development cost of 214.55 acre land in Sherpur upazila of Sylhet district will be Tk7 crore. Earlier, it was said that after fixing land tariff by the BEZA board the cost of the land development would be Tk13.88 crore. But Finance Division was not willing to provide the money because of fund shortage. As a result, the division decided to give Tk7 crore for the work. In the last budget announcement, finance minister disclosed that they were plan to establish 100 economic zones in phases over the next 15 years across the country to create new opportunities for investment, industrialisation and employment. BEZA officials predict these have the potentials to increase export earnings by $40bn and generate up to 10m additional jobs.
