CHITTAGONG, Oct 19: Gesin Group, a Korea-based multinational company and leading manufacturer of outdoor recreational products, has set up two tent-producing factories in the Karnaphuli EPZ (KEPZ).
The units - Gesinha Outdoor Ltd and Campha Outdoor Ltd - have been set up with an initial investment of $15 million, employing some 4,500 workers. The units will go to production in the last week of this month.
Another tent manufacturing unit of the group - Hana S&B - is being set up in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ), whose production will start by December.
Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain formally inaugurated the factories in the KEPZ at North Patenga in the port-city on Saturday afternoon.
BEPZA acting chairman Md Nurul Islam addressed the function as the special guest. Gesin Group honourary chairman Lt Gen (retd) Harunor Rashid gave the welcome address.
KEPZ GM Khurshid Alam, Gesinha Outdoor Ltd MD Kwon Sheong Soo, Hana S&B Ltd MD Lee Hong Woo, Campha Outdoor Ltd MD Kim Beom Joon, and senior officials of the KEPZ and Korean companies were present on the occasion.
Mr Mosharraf said the government is providing a number of facilities and incentives for the investors from home and abroad, which have attracted the foreigners, including the Koreans, to invest in Bangladesh.
"The government of Sheikh Hasina has planned to set up seven special economic zones (SEZs) throughout the country, especially to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). Each of these SEZs will be an independent production zone with all facilities and amenities, including health, education, recreation and housing for officials and workers."
The total area of the country's all eight export processing zones is 2,300 acres, while Mirsarai SEZ alone has been earmarked on an area over 8,000 acres. Mainly non-arable lands have been chosen for these SEZs, leaving farm lands reserved for agriculture, he said.
He said the Prime Minister during her recent China and Japan visits have urged entrepreneurs of those countries to invest in SEZs. The government will provide all facilities, including land, to set up industries there.
Mr Harun said the Gesin Group has set up three industries in the CEPZ and the KEPZ in 2014 with a significant amount of investment. The group has now become a conglomerate of more than 10 subsidiaries in China, the US and Bangladesh.
A senior official told the FE on Sunday that production of travel tent in Gesinha and Campha will start on October 27, while it is expected to start in Hana S&B by December.
They have imported raw materials from China for the KEPZ factories. Tents, produced in these units, will be exported to the US, Canada and the UAE.
The KEPZ now has 41 industries, including 14 readymade garments, six garment accessories, six shoe factories, five tent and sleeping bag factories, two textile industries, one bi-cycle industry, one furniture industry, one camera lens industry, and one fibre boat and car sun-roof making industry. It earned $526 million against the target of $500 million in the fiscal year 2013-14.
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