Govt starts construction of API Park next month
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
FE Report
The government starts construction work of the country's first industrial park for medicine raw materials next month in a major boost to the fast-booming pharmaceutical sector, an official said Sunday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will open ground-breaking work of the Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredient (API) Industrial Park in Munshiganj on June 3, chairman of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) Md. Siddiqur Rahman told FE.
"We are building 42 industrial plots in the 200-acre facility that will create direct jobs for 25,000 people indirect jobs for 100,000," Rahman, whose agency is executing the Tk2.33 billion project, said.
The construction work will end in December 2011 and the plots would be handed over to the country's top medicine makers and intending foreign investors immediately after the project execution.
The park is the first and the most important government move to boost the growth of the country's Tk50 billion-strong pharmaceutical industry. Private medicine makers have contributed Tk250 million to the construction work.
Although pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh has been enjoying a double-digit growth since the unveiling of the country's first Drug Policy in 1982, they rely on imported APIs to sustain growth.
According to the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI), more the 90 per cent of the medicine raw materials used by the local manufacturers are sourced from India, China and some developed nations.
Over the last decade BAPI has persistently made demand for API Park where they can set up plants to produce drug raw materials in a bid to cut import and build a vital back-ward linkage to one of the most vibrant industries of the country.
The BSCIC chairman said the Park will secure long-term growth for the country's pharmaceutical sector. It will have all infrastructural facilities needed for API plants, including central effluent treatment facility, dumping yard and incinerator.
"It will make Bangladeshi manufacturers self dependent and save millions of dollars of foreign currency," he said, adding the authorities hope that the Park would also woo foreign investment.
He said the Park would meet local demand and boost export of APIs and drugs.
A total of 246 local companies are manufacturing medicines and exporting to 73 countries around the world, according to the BSCIC statistics.
Bangladesh exported 40 million dollars worth of generic drugs in the nine months to March, clocking a year-on-year growth of 16 per cent.
The government starts construction work of the country's first industrial park for medicine raw materials next month in a major boost to the fast-booming pharmaceutical sector, an official said Sunday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will open ground-breaking work of the Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredient (API) Industrial Park in Munshiganj on June 3, chairman of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) Md. Siddiqur Rahman told FE.
"We are building 42 industrial plots in the 200-acre facility that will create direct jobs for 25,000 people indirect jobs for 100,000," Rahman, whose agency is executing the Tk2.33 billion project, said.
The construction work will end in December 2011 and the plots would be handed over to the country's top medicine makers and intending foreign investors immediately after the project execution.
The park is the first and the most important government move to boost the growth of the country's Tk50 billion-strong pharmaceutical industry. Private medicine makers have contributed Tk250 million to the construction work.
Although pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh has been enjoying a double-digit growth since the unveiling of the country's first Drug Policy in 1982, they rely on imported APIs to sustain growth.
According to the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI), more the 90 per cent of the medicine raw materials used by the local manufacturers are sourced from India, China and some developed nations.
Over the last decade BAPI has persistently made demand for API Park where they can set up plants to produce drug raw materials in a bid to cut import and build a vital back-ward linkage to one of the most vibrant industries of the country.
The BSCIC chairman said the Park will secure long-term growth for the country's pharmaceutical sector. It will have all infrastructural facilities needed for API plants, including central effluent treatment facility, dumping yard and incinerator.
"It will make Bangladeshi manufacturers self dependent and save millions of dollars of foreign currency," he said, adding the authorities hope that the Park would also woo foreign investment.
He said the Park would meet local demand and boost export of APIs and drugs.
A total of 246 local companies are manufacturing medicines and exporting to 73 countries around the world, according to the BSCIC statistics.
Bangladesh exported 40 million dollars worth of generic drugs in the nine months to March, clocking a year-on-year growth of 16 per cent.