Ctg businesses demand reliable gas, denounce centralised policymaking
Special Correspondent Back from Chittagong | Sunday, 26 February 2017
Chittagong businessmen have demanded uninterrupted gas and power supply and proper utilisation of business potentialities for boosting investments.
They found relocation of industries to the capital city and centralised policy-making system to be major obstacles to sluggish trend in business development in Chittagong city.
Industries in Chittagong are not getting proper support to run smoothly, resulting in their relocation to Dhaka, they added.
"Chittagong could be a commercial capital of the country," Mahbubul Alam, president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), told a meeting with the members of Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) at World Trade Centre (WTC) in Chittagong on Friday.
Businessmen of the port city have been facing scarcity of land, but it will be resolved after establishing economic zones in Mirsarai area, he said.
"During the last five years, the city has not seen any new industrial zones except for an export processing zone," he added.
Also, new gas connection has remained suspended since 2009.
Mr Alam said industries in Chittagong needed 500 mmcfd (million cubic feet per day) gas but only 240 mmcfd was available now.
He urged the authority to focus on tourism development in Chittagong city, capacity enhancement of the port to handle increased foreign trade and recover grabbed land of Chittagong port.
Director of CCCI Mahfuzul Hoque Shah said bay terminal could be established to expedite export-import activity in the port.
He said the potentials of Chittagong remained unexplored due to tendency of entrepreneurs to establish industrial units in Dhaka as all facilities are available there.
Anjan Shekhar Das, another director of CCCI, said that the ready-made garment sector has been investing in improving compliance, but facing growing pressure on this issue day by day.
He said sometimes it became burdensome for local industries in the present socio-economic context.
ERF president Saif Islam Dilal and Secretary Ziaur Rahman, among others, spoke at the meeting.
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