Move to set up garment village on unused BSFIC land

Rezaul Karim | February 28, 2014 00:00:00

The government is considering setting up a garment village on the unused land under Bangladesh Sugar & Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC).

The ministry of commerce (MoC) would seek opinions of the Privatisation Commission (PC) on approval of the proposal, a high official of the MoC said.

"The concerned wing of the ministry is working on the move that is still at a formative stage. As a result, we can't say anything about this," said an official of the MoC familiar with the move.

Over 1,516.74 acres of land belonging to ailing state-owned enterprises (SoEs) are lying unused in different areas of the country, according to sources. Of the land area, about 706 acres are under the BSFIC, according to the available data.

Presently, the BSFIC has more than 15,323 acres of land under its 10 mills and offices across the country.

The PC took an initiative last year to lease out the unused land under the SoEs, but it did not make much progress, sources said.

Earlier in 2012 the PC conducted a survey and found 1,517.74 acres of land belonging to 38 SoEs lying unused across the country.

A large number of jobs would be created, if the government could set up a garment village on the land, industry insiders said.

"We are thinking of establishing a garment village on the unused land of the BSFIC. The concerned authorities of the government are assessing the possibility and prospect of such a village before taking a decision in this connection," a source said.

It would be difficult to build any heavy industry on the BSFIC land scattered across the country, sources said.

The BSFIC emerged a single corporate body in July, 1976. The state-run 15 sugar mills under the BSFIC incurred losses to the tune of about Tk 2.89 billion in the fiscal year 2012-13, sources said.

The higher production cost of sugar, non-availability of sugarcane and an unusual hike in crop procurement cost caused the losses, sources said.

The aggregate liabilities of the 39 SoEs increased to Tk 51.90 billion (5,290 crore) at the end of the last calendar year (2012) from Tk 37.39 billion at the end of 2010, the data available with the PC showed.