The World Bank expressed its willingness to provide financial and technical assistance to help build the proposed garment industrial park at
Gazaria in Munshiganj district, said garment industry leaders.
At a meeting with the leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Martin Norman, senior private sector development specialist of the World Bank on Sunday said that the WB is interested to give support to develop an economic zone for the Bangladeshi garment sector.
Quoting the WB officials, BGMEA vice-president SM Mannan Kochi told reporters that Martin has agreed to share their experience to build an economic zone and they will convey details to the BGMEA through a letter within a week outlining what kind of assistance they would give.
He said that the WB representatives were informed of the BGMEA plan and they collected information on the project of garment village.
‘We will sit again and a detail action plan will be finalised to relocate the noncompliant factories to the industrial park at Gazaria in Munshiganj,’ Mannan said.
Former BGMEA vice-president Faruque Hassan said that the WB representatives wanted to know whether the noncompliant factories could maintain standard after their shifting to the industrial park.
‘We have sought assistance to the WB in this regard as the entrepreneurs will need huge amount of money to build their infrastructures. But WB cannot give financial assistance to any private sector. They can only provide their support through the government or International Finance Corporation,’ he said.
BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim said that the government has recently allocated 530 acres of land at Bausia under Gazaria upazila in Munshiganj district to set up the garment village and it would be possible to accommodate about 577 factories there.
He said the WB has experience in establishing especial economic zones and BGMEA has sought their financial and technical assistance in this regard.
The three-member WB team has shown its interest to work with the BGMEA and said that they were ready to share their experience on developing a special economic zone in Bangladesh.
-With New Age input
