Ziaur Rahman
To promote the thriving light engineering sector, the government is going to set up a light engineering industrial estate on 100 acres of land in Bhola district.
Some 200 units of light engineering industry are likely to be set up in the proposed industrial estate.
A high-level team comprising government officials, experts, business leaders and entrepreneurs from light engineering sector is now visiting the site at Vetka, some 10 kms away from the Bhola district town, Board of Investment (BoI) officials said.
The BOI, which is supervising the project, has already completed all necessary groundwork and preparations. If everything goes on accordingly, it will submit the proposal to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) next week for approval. Once approved by the prime minister, they will start acquiring land.
The BOI selected the site because of its geographical location which, they said, is suitable for import and export with having abundant supply of natural gas and electricity.
"BoI has already finished the scratch mapping of the plan," said BoI Joint Secretary Tauhidur Rahman Khan, adding that the rest of the work would be done as per the recommendations to be made at a workshop slated for today in Bhola.
"A good number of entrepreneurs from neighbouring India, China, Malaysia and Japan also expressed interest in the proposed industrial estate. They are likely to visit the site by April this year," Mr Tauhid said.
According to industry insiders, there are about 5,000 workshops at Jinjira and Dolaikhal in the capital where a huge number of people work. Most of the country's manufacturing industries still largely depend on imported machinery and spare parts.
"The country can benefit a lot if light engineering products and spare parts currently imported by major industries are manufactured in the country," BUET professor Dr. M Kamal Uddin told the FE.
According to experts, the global market of the light engineering industry is worth about US$ 6.6 trillion while the local market size is around US$ 7.0 billion which accounted for 1.87 per cent of the country's GDP (gross domestic product).
"So, here is a tremendous opportunity for both local and foreign investors," said the BUET professor.
Last year (2013-14), the country exported engineering products worth about US$ 366.66 million.
There are about 40,000 light engineering units across the country, producing spare parts for large and medium-scale industries and various import substitute inputs for local industries.
"But the chronic dependence on foreign countries for spare parts even to run the existing industries does not only cause drain of hard-earned foreign currency, but also hinders the industrialisation process and industrial capacity building," said BEIOA president Abdur Razzaque.
mzrbd@yahoo.com
