Work on 'garment village' in Munshiganj to resume by Jan
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Jasim Khan
The government has initiated steps to resume construction work of the proposed 'garment village' in Munshiganj by next month aiming to relocate about 1000 garment factories to the site by January 2014.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the stakeholders concerned to immediately set up the proposed garment village as the hundred per cent-compliant apparel units approached her to keep them safe from the fire incidents like that occurred recently at Tazreen Fashions near the capital.
The PM also directed building similar garment villages in Savar, Gazipur and Chittagong in phases, as she desires that the country should not have any non-compliant garment factory in the near future.
The Prime Minister made the directive Thursday at a meeting with the officials of the office of the Public Private Partnership (PPP), a high official at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.
Following the directive, the PMO held a meeting Wednesday with the representatives of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh Knitwear Manufactures and Exporters Association (BKMEA), representatives from the PPP office , Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) and Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA).
The BGMEA and BKMEA representatives have agreed that they will submit a detailed proposal on the 'garment village' by December 31, 2012, so that BEZA can resume construction work of the proposed village.
The meeting decided that after receiving the complete proposal including details of the numbers of required plots, size of the plot, pattern of ownership, utility and others, BEZA will start construction work at the proposed site at Bausia under Gazaria upazila of the Munshiganj district.
PMO DG-1, Abdul Aziz, presided over the meeting where it also had decided that BSCIC and BEZA would jointly complete the land acquisition and site development activities.
The BSCIC will also hand over the feasibility report to the BEZA so that BEZA can get help in implementing the project.
Issues including setting up of central effluent treatment plants (CETPs), privately run power plants and other additional service oriented infrastructure can be implemented with the help of the PPP office, the meeting also decided.
A garment industrial park will be set up on 300 acres of land at Bausia at an estimated cost of Tk 7.45 billion.
The garment industrial park will have 976 plots with infrastructural facilities, utility services, medical facilities, CETPs, day care centres, roads, drainage facilities, waste-dumping yard, firefighting equipment, banks, insurance offices and IT parks.
The proposed garment village at Munshiganj is set to accommodate apparel manufacturing units that comply with global factory laws and standards. The project has been shelved for over four years due to bureaucratic tangles.
The delay frustrated the apparel makers and exporters, who feel that the indecision about the proposed apparel park will blur the future of Bangladesh's garment export, as competing countries are hastily implementing a lot of such parks to woo global buyers, who look for fully-compliant factories.
The plan was taken up in December 2005 and the apparel industry association in April 2006 found out a 300-acre Char land at Gazaria in Munshiganj, about 37 kilometres northeast of the capital.
Accordingly, state-run Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) prepared a development project proposal for the said park at an estimated cost of Tk 3.1 billion.
But the project failed to get approval from the Planning Commission, even though it has been incorporated in the annual development programme (ADP) of the current fiscal year.
The World Bank was supposed to provide US$ 45 million for the project.
The government has initiated steps to resume construction work of the proposed 'garment village' in Munshiganj by next month aiming to relocate about 1000 garment factories to the site by January 2014.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the stakeholders concerned to immediately set up the proposed garment village as the hundred per cent-compliant apparel units approached her to keep them safe from the fire incidents like that occurred recently at Tazreen Fashions near the capital.
The PM also directed building similar garment villages in Savar, Gazipur and Chittagong in phases, as she desires that the country should not have any non-compliant garment factory in the near future.
The Prime Minister made the directive Thursday at a meeting with the officials of the office of the Public Private Partnership (PPP), a high official at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.
Following the directive, the PMO held a meeting Wednesday with the representatives of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh Knitwear Manufactures and Exporters Association (BKMEA), representatives from the PPP office , Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) and Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA).
The BGMEA and BKMEA representatives have agreed that they will submit a detailed proposal on the 'garment village' by December 31, 2012, so that BEZA can resume construction work of the proposed village.
The meeting decided that after receiving the complete proposal including details of the numbers of required plots, size of the plot, pattern of ownership, utility and others, BEZA will start construction work at the proposed site at Bausia under Gazaria upazila of the Munshiganj district.
PMO DG-1, Abdul Aziz, presided over the meeting where it also had decided that BSCIC and BEZA would jointly complete the land acquisition and site development activities.
The BSCIC will also hand over the feasibility report to the BEZA so that BEZA can get help in implementing the project.
Issues including setting up of central effluent treatment plants (CETPs), privately run power plants and other additional service oriented infrastructure can be implemented with the help of the PPP office, the meeting also decided.
A garment industrial park will be set up on 300 acres of land at Bausia at an estimated cost of Tk 7.45 billion.
The garment industrial park will have 976 plots with infrastructural facilities, utility services, medical facilities, CETPs, day care centres, roads, drainage facilities, waste-dumping yard, firefighting equipment, banks, insurance offices and IT parks.
The proposed garment village at Munshiganj is set to accommodate apparel manufacturing units that comply with global factory laws and standards. The project has been shelved for over four years due to bureaucratic tangles.
The delay frustrated the apparel makers and exporters, who feel that the indecision about the proposed apparel park will blur the future of Bangladesh's garment export, as competing countries are hastily implementing a lot of such parks to woo global buyers, who look for fully-compliant factories.
The plan was taken up in December 2005 and the apparel industry association in April 2006 found out a 300-acre Char land at Gazaria in Munshiganj, about 37 kilometres northeast of the capital.
Accordingly, state-run Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) prepared a development project proposal for the said park at an estimated cost of Tk 3.1 billion.
But the project failed to get approval from the Planning Commission, even though it has been incorporated in the annual development programme (ADP) of the current fiscal year.
The World Bank was supposed to provide US$ 45 million for the project.