Hi-Tech Park
Cabinet body set to consider bid proposal tomorrow
The project to establish the country’s first-ever hi-tech park at Kaliakoir of Gazipur under the public-private partnership is expected to see the light soon as a bid proposal in this regard is set to be considered by the cabinet economic affairs committee tomorrow.
Once the cabinet body approves the proposal, this will be the final nod from the government’s highest level to set up the hi-tech park, said a top official of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.
The ICT ministry moved the bid proposal of the consortium of Kulim Technology Park Corporation and its associates, which has been selected as the first qualified and responsive bidder in an open tender invited by the Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority.
Officials said KTPC is a Malaysian giant in the ICT sector having an experience of development and operation of a 10,000 acre hi-tech park in its country. ‘Once the cabinet body approves the proposal, we’ll award the contract to the KTPC to set up the park,’ said the official.
The setting up of the hi-tech park was a top priority programme of the Awami League-led alliance government as it considers the establishment of such park as a key milestone towards its commitment to building Digital Bangladesh.
According to the KTPC proposal, the Malaysian consortium will invest Tk 1,000 crore to develop the hi-tech park to provide adequate infrastructure facilities to the investors in the park on 232 acres of land in Kaliakoir of Gazipur on design-build-finance-operate-own-and-transfer basis.
Experts in the ICT sector said hi-tech parks are now being developed in different countries with a purpose to provide adequate infrastructure support services to create an environment well organised for development of need-based industries within the area.
Kailakoir hi-tech park will be the first of such initiative in Bangladesh, which will serve as an incubator for turning technology into productive forces. It will be an ideal place for returned overseas students, institutions of higher learning, research institutes and independent entrepreneurs to develop high-tech industries and trade.
Initiative to set up the high-tech park at Kaliakoir was undertaken in 1999. The then Ministry of Science and ICT conducted a feasibility study through Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
A Buet team visited some countries such as India, Singapore, Malaysia and gathered experience on design, operation and management for a hi-tech park at Kaliakoir. In the year 2004-2005, the hi-tech park project was included in the ADP.
Kaliakoir hi-tech Park will provide both domestic and foreign investors with land for industrial or commercial use as well as standard factory buildings for hi-technology knowledge based economy.
It is hoped that the park will attract investors from a great number of countries and regions such as the USA, the UK, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Austria, Indonesia, Finland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The main objective of the park will be to attract foreign companies to set up operations in Bangladesh, develop indigenous technological capability for the development of the local industries, create a conducive atmosphere for establishing ICT, engineering, electronics, telecommunication, biotechnology and other related knowledge based industry.
In order to implement the project, the present government created Bangladesh High-Tech Park Authority in 2010 through passage of a law on the matter.
-With New Age input
