PROPOSED GARMENT INDUSTRIAL PARK
China firm to give Tk 1,400cr in soft loan to develop land
A China-based financial institution has agreed to give loan worth Tk 1,400 crore at a low interest rate to the garment factory owners in Bangladesh to develop the land acquired for the proposed garment industrial park at Gazaria in Munshiganj. Garment sector leaders said they were going to form a company comprising representatives from Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association to receive the loan.
They, however, would not disclose the name of the Chinese firm.
‘Following suggestions of Bangladesh Bank and Board of Investment, we have agreed to form a company and the company will sign a memorandum of understanding with the China firm by this month,’ BKMEA vice-president Mohammad Hatem told New Age after a joint meeting of the BGMEA and the BKMEA on Saturday.
Terms and conditions of the MoU will be finalised after further meeting, he said.
Hatem said the two trade bodies of the garment sector had decided to complete their preparations to receive the loan within one month and to deposit money to the government as cost of the land acquisition within two months.
He said the presidents of the two associations would decide what would be the name of the company and who would be included in the company.
‘The development work will be supervised by the company of the BGMEA and the BKMEA and the China firm will work with us till the development of the land for the proposed industrial park,’ he said.
He also said that the BB and the BoI had agreed to give all necessary support to the garment factory owners in receiving the loan as the China firm wanted a bank guarantee.
The government recently allocated 530 acres of land at Bausia under Gazaria upazila in the Munshiganj district to set up the garment industrial zone, where as many as 577 factories can be accommodated.
In June, the BGMEA and the BKMEA invited applications from their members who are interested to relocate their units to the industrial park.
According to the associations’ leaders, the BGMEA has so far received 1,700 applications and the BKMEA 119 applications.
BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim said that they would scrutinise the applications soon and the owners of the vulnerable factories would get priority in allocating plots in the zone.
‘We are also thinking to maintain a guideline in allocating plots and the applicants who export above $12 million a year will have to deposit 40 per cent of the total price of plot as down payment and who export below $12 million a year will have to deposit 20 per cent as down payment,’ he said.
The garment industrial park will have plots with infrastructural facilities, utility services, medical facilities, central effluent treatment plants, power plant, day-care centres, roads, drainage facilities, waste-dumping yards, fire-fighting equipments, banks, insurance offices and information technology parks.
Earlier on August 22, the BGMEA urged the BB to grant garment owners loans worth Tk 720 crore at a low interest rate so that they could relocate their factories to the garment industrial park.
-With New Age input
