New jobs, investments on wane in EPZs

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Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
Opportunities for new jobs in export processing zones (EPZ) have fallen as foreign investors have tightened their belts and adopted a 'wait and see' approach amid the ongoing global economic crisis.
"The investors take a backseat as spending in high streets of Europe and America has fallen and almost all the products produced in the EPZs are destined for those markets," member of the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) Prasanta Bhushan Barua told to the FE.
On an average about 1,450 jobs were created per month in the last fiscal but this fiscal it has come down to 1,250, according to the statistics of BEPZA.
Foreign investments also plunged to $105 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal against $302 million invested throughout the last fiscal year.
"We used to have meetings with foreign investors everyday but now it has come down to once a week," he said.
The ongoing recession starting in the second half of last year has hit the developed countries hard and made the people more cautious about spending.
The foreign investments are likely to see a negative growth in the EPZs in the current fiscal as it is very difficult to lure investors now, said another BEPZA official.
BEPZA has taken a number of initiatives to attract the investors but in this situation it is difficult to convince the investors to invest in the EPZs, he said.
"We hold meetings, seminars, road shows in different countries and explain the benefits of investing in Bangladesh to the potential investors," he added.
Demands in the industrialised countries are falling as people are holding money due to the perceived bleak prospect but the situation is expected to improve from next year, he expressed his hope.
Factories in the EPZs exported $1.78 billion worth of goods in the July-February period against the target of $2.8 billion for the whole fiscal.
The cumulative investments of over 500 companies in the eight EPZs are $1.53 billion and the companies employ 0.23 million people.
The eight are Chitagong, Dhaka, Karnaphuli, Ishwardi, Adamjee, Comilla, Mongla and Nilphamari's Uttara EPZs.
The productivity performance of EPZ workers is 2.3 times higher than the workers outside EPZs, the BEPZA official said.
"We conducted a study and found that an EPZ worker produced products worth over $10,147 and a non-EPZ worker produced products worth only $4,389," he said.
Companies from 33 countries invested in the EPZs with South Korea being the number one investor, he added.
South Korean companies invested $357 million and the next biggest foreign investor is Japan with $171 million.
Most of the companies have invested in garments, textiles, terry towel, knit and other textiles while seven companies produce agro-products.
The companies supply products to globally famous companies including Nike, Reebok, Gap, JC Penny, Wal Mart, Adidas, Sony, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Hino, Minolta, Fuji, Konika, Wrangler and Kmart.