CHATTOGRAM, Oct 2: The government is going to set up a technology centre in the Mirsarai Economic Zone to facilitate export diversification, create skilled workforce and support technical development.
The technology centre (TC) will be established on an area of 10 acres of land in the Economic Zone (EZ) and it will be operated through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode in cooperation with the stakeholders concerned.
Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce Md Obaidul Azam said this at a 'Stakeholders consultation meeting on the proposed TC at the Mirsarai Economic Zone' on Monday.
The stakeholders will be provided with required technical cooperation and services through the technology centre.
The meeting was jointly organised by the Ministry of Commerce, the World Bank and the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry under the Export Competitiveness for Job (EC4J) project at the World Trade Centre in the city, with CCCI president Mahbubul Alam in the chair.
Project director Obaidul Azam said an export support structure will be framed to link up the entrepreneurs with the export supply chain.
CCCI president Mahbubul Alam said the economic zone will generate huge employment through industrialisation, aiming to achieve the goals of Prime Minister's Vision 2021 and 2041.
It is very important to create technically skilled workforce, especially for the small and medium enterprises, he said.
"This is an era of competition. So, we must keep pace with Vietnam, Korea and China as we have to compete with them," he said.
"Now 80 to 85 per cent of the country's export earnings come from the readymade garment sector, followed by pharmaceutical industry, jute and jute products, leather and leather goods, bicycle, ceramics and sanitary ware, he added.
World Bank's private sector specialist Hosna Ferdous Sumi said the demand for high quality products is increasing gradually in the country.
"So, we have to improve the quality of our products. For this, we need to create skilled manpower and acquire knowledge of the international market."
CCCI vice president Syed Jamal Ahmed, director Anjan Shekhar Das, former director Mahfuzul Huq Shah, BEZA deputy manager Mizanur Rahman, World Bank consultant Mrinal Kanti Sarkar, project manager Lutfur Rahman, EPB director Kangkon Chakma, BSCIC promotion officer Tanija Jahan and Prantik Group MD Engineer Golam Sarwar were present at the meeting.
[email protected]
