Land crisis prompts decrease in investment by 5.39pc in EPZs

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Executive Chairman of BEPZA KM Mominur Rahman speaking at the press conference in the city Wednesday. — FE Photo

FE Report Investment in the country's economic zones decreased by 5.39 per cent during the first eight months of the fiscal year 2012-13 compared to the same period in the last one mainly due to land crisis, a BEPZA top official said Wednesday. "Actual investments worth US$ 222.68 million have been made in EPZs up to February of the current fiscal year (FY) compared to that of $235.37 million in the same period of the last fiscal," Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) executive chairman Maj Gen KM Mominur Rahman said. But the investment figure will increase in the future as many of the companies, which made partial investments earlier, have now started construction work on the empty plots, he said. Mr Rahman was speaking at a Meet the Press programme to highlight the activities and performance of BEPZA held at its city office. Among the investments, $100.51 million has been made by Chittagong EPZ, $48.55 million by Dhaka EPZ, $28.19 million by Karnaphuli EPZ, $19.05 million by Adamjee EPZ, $11.47 million by Comilla EPZ, $10.51 million by Uttara EPZ, $3.06 million by Ishwardi EPZ and $1.35 million by Mongla EPZ, he added. The cumulative investments stand at US$ 2679.64 million up to February in 8 Export Processing Zones (EPZs) of Bangladesh. Explaining the land scarcity and its impact, the BEPZA executive chairman said entrepreneurs were turning away from BEPZA, despite keen interest shown by them, due to the dearth of plots in Dhaka and Chittagong EPZs. "During the last six months, BEPZA lost 17 entrepreneurs with probable investments of US$ 150 million, although they are eager to invest in the lucrative locations of Dhaka and Chittagong EPZs," Mr Rahman said. Since there is a scarcity of plots in the EPZs, BEPZA is expanding the existing factories vertically to accommodate more industries in the EPZs, he added. Exports from the EPZs increased by 13.27 per cent during the first eight months of the current fiscal year and stood at $3.06 billion, he said adding the contribution of the EPZs to the total national export volume had also been increasing every year and it was $4210 million in the last year, which was 17.24 per cent of the total export earning. About 21,431 persons were employed in the EPZs during July-February of the fiscal 2012-13 up by 22.63 per cent compared to the last fiscal, he said adding the operating industrial units of EPZs have generated employment for 3,58,772 Bangladeshi nationals up to February 2013, sixty-four per cent of them being women. BEPZA has sanctioned 561 industrial units in different EPZs of the country. Of those, 415 industries are already in operation and 146 are at different stages of implementation, Mr Rahman said.