BEZA yet to own land to set up industries

Since adoption of the Economic Zone Act in 2010, the authority concerned is yet to own a single inch of land for establishing an economic zone, sources said.
Due to the growing scarcity of land the government has planned to develop a number of areas under the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA).
The authority is functioning under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and has already selected some specific areas in several districts for establishing economic zones, the sources said.
As part of its land acquisition move, the authority has selected some land in the Mongla Port area and recently sought Tk 470 million from the ministry of finance (MoF) for purchasing and
developing the same. But it is yet get any response.
A BEZA official said the MoF has already forwarded a letter to the PMO and hopefully necessary fund would be available soon.
He said, "At this moment we do not have our own money and so we are borrowing fund from the government."
 "We would get our own money when we will be able to sell industrial plots to investors after necessary development", he said.
Apart from Mongla Port land, some areas in Anowara and Mirersarai of Chittagong, Sirajganj, Sherpur, Moulvibazar and other parts have already been selected by the BEZA.
But acquisition is yet to be made; so the implementation of the economic zones for local and foreign investment has not started yet.
A local investor who is not getting any land to set up factory said the government's initiative was good but it is frustrating that in last three years it could not make any tangible progress.
He said the move in relation to land acquisition in Mongla Port was the first initiative of the BEZA and as it is still not being done, so it is difficult to say what would happen in other places.
Another BEZA official said, "We are also planning to develop land under public-private partnership but in this case also we need our own lands."
Citing the example of Mongla Port, he said, currently the port authority has some surplus land and they would transfer those to us if they get money. "Once the money that we sought is available, we will pay the same to the port authority and after that they would transfer the land to the BEZA", he said.