The World Bank (WB) will provide support to the Bangladesh Export Zone Authority (BEZA) for another five years in establishing offset infrastructure of the economic zones in the country.For this, the global lender has extended the tenure of a project for the next five years to provide financial support of $108 million to pave the way of the establishment of the proposed economic zones in Bangladesh. According to BEZA, a team of WB held a meeting with BEZA on Sunday last at BEZA office while the WB representatives expressed their interest to extend the project. The team included Michael O Engman, Senior Economist, Trade and Competitiveness, and Manju Hatuatu of WB. Md Harunur Rashid, Project Director of BEZA, told daily sun that WB officials held a meeting with them in this regard on Sunday. They also held another meeting with BEZA Executive Chairman Paban Chowdhury on Tuesday. According to information, the existing project will end in June 2016. Under the project, WB along with DFID will provide financial support to Development Project Pro-forma (DPP) and Technical Project Pro-forma (TPP) to enhance capacity building of BEZA and offsite development of different economic zones. It was learnt that BEZA has been establishing offsite infrastructure of three economic zones under the financing of WB and DFID. The three economic zones are Mongla Economic Zone, Mirsarai Economic Zone and Srihatta Economic Zone in Moulavibazar. Feasibility study of Anwara Economic Zone has also been done following the project of WB and DFID. The offsite infrastructure development includes constructing roads, providing utility connections and others. The tenure of the project will end in June next year, said Harunur Rashid adding that the WB has expressed its interest to extend the project to 2021 next. It was learnt that $108 million — $100 million for DPP and $8 million for TPP — will be provided to BEZA. The amount will be spent to establish another 32 economic zones of the country. BEZA sources also said WB is interested to provide the loan under the mentioned projects to establish the economic zones on follow land. It will be a great achievement for the country if the project can be extended, said Harunur Rashid informing that the WB officials are also interested to extend the project further if the amount can be utilised. Mentionable, BEZA is planning to establish 100 economic zones by the year 2030 on 75,000 acres of land across the country. Of the 75,000 acres, BEZA has already got ownership of around 7,000 acres of land.
