BOI for housing by-product units

Relocation of tanneries from the city's Hazaribagh area to Savar Leather Industrial Estate will have a little impact on the environment unless the by-product industries, mostly relying on the leftovers from the tanneries, are relocated accordingly, experts and industry people said.
A large number of peripheral businesses have developed in and around Hazaribagh, mostly depending on these leftovers from the tanneries. Using the raw tannery waste, they produce various types of by-products, including poultry and fish feed, which experts said, are posing threat to public health and safety, they said.
"Unless these by-products and related recycling industries are accommodated in the leather industrial estate, it will not benefit much to improve the environment. But unfortunately, there is no room for these by-product industries in the Savar Leather Estate," said Tauhidur Rahman Khan, Joint Secretary, Board of Investment (BOI), adding that the whole issue will come up for discussion at a meeting scheduled for today (Saturday).
Tanneries located in Hazaribagh process about 90 per cent of the hides and skins available in the country and pollute the environment heavily by discharging untreated effluents into drains which are finally making its way towards the River Buriganga and nearby fields.
To check the pollution, the government is developing a leather industrial estate with Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) on 200 acres of land at Savar. But the authorities concerned, sources said, did not keep any option for the by-product industries. The BOI said that they would seek another 200 acres of land to accommodate the by-product and other ancillary industries.  
The government plans to make the industrial estate operational by July this year. BOI officials said the construction work of the CETP, where all forms of tannery waste are to be treated, is going on in full swing. A total of 155 leather factories have also started setting up their infrastructures at the Savar Leather Estate and are likely to go into operation by the middle of this year.  
According to experts, leather and leather goods from Bangladesh will enjoy good prices once the industries are relocated in Savar and run in an environment-friendly manner. Due to anti-environmental leather goods production on the existing tannery site in the country, the European and American buyers often decline to purchase Bangladesh-made leather goods.
"The buyers had cancelled import orders, showing the cause of environmental impacts caused by unhealthy leather factories," said an official of Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association (BFLLFA), adding that relocation of the tanneries will help overcome the problem.
 "We are hopeful of getting more orders and good prices once our industry is shifted to Savar," said Mizanur Rahman Khan of Bay Tannery, adding that they have already completed the ground constructions and are hopeful of shifting their industries from Hazaribagh to Savar by July this year.
According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), exports from the country's leather sector stood at US$ 1.3 billion in last fiscal year (2013-14) against US$ 980 million in the previous year (2012-13) registering a growth of 32.12 per cent.
Leather exports accounted for 4.29 per cent of the country's total exports worth $30.17 billion last fiscal year. Bangladesh has so far grabbed only 0.56 per cent of the global market share of US$ 230 billion, though the sector emerged as the second largest one after the RMG.
The high cost of doing business in China, Khan said, has also created a business opportunity for Bangladesh due to its competitive workforce, high quality of hides and skins. "But political uncertainty makes investors shy to come in a bigger way," he said, stressing the need for an immediate solution to the nagging problem.
The BOI is set to hold a daylong workshop at a city hotel today to explore the potential of the sector and find ways and means to develop the sector further which has 90 per cent value addition.  
Experts, researchers, academics, policymakers and technocrats are likely to meet at the workshop where they will discuss the potentials and weaknesses of the industry, identify the loopholes and make suggestions to take the growth of the sector to new heights.
    mzrbd@yahoo.com