The outline for setting up the garment industrial park at Gazaria in Minshiganj will be finalised at a meeting to be held at the Prime Minister’s Office on May 7, industries minister Amir Hossain Amu said on Sunday. ‘I hope the country’s garment sector will enter a new era within a short time as in today’s meeting we have prepared the proposal of foreign investment to develop the industrial park and we have decided to forward the decision to the PMO meeting,’ he told reporters after a meeting on implementation of the Garment Industrial Park project.
Industries secretary Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Md Atiqul Islam, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Mohammad Hatem, representatives from commerce ministry, land ministry, Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority and Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation attended the meeting.
The industries minister said Chinese investors were keen to invest $1.2 billion to implement the project and the government should approve the proposal as manufacturers had no ability to invest the amount at a time.
The project will generate new employment for 10 lakh people, he added.
The government has recently allocated 530 acres of land at Bausia under Gazaria upazila to set up the garment industrial zone, where as many as 577 factories can be accommodated.
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.
Under the Build Operate Transfer scheme, a China-based financial institution has agreed to give loan worth Tk 1,400 crore to the garment factory owners in Bangladesh to develop the land acquired for the proposed garment industrial park but it wants sovereign guarantee for the loan.
Garment sector leaders have decided to form a company comprising representatives from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association to receive the loan but until now they have failed to convince the government for the sovereign guarantee, sources said.
According to the sources, the issue of foreign loan will be placed in the PMO meeting as the prime minister’s approval is needed for the sovereign guarantee.
The PMO will finalise the outline for setting up the industrial park and BEZA will implement the project.
-With New Age input
