The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Lack of experts hampers Bangladesh’s bid for setting up special IT EPZs

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Saturday, May 23, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Lack of experts hampers Bangladesh’s bid for setting up special IT EPZs

Special Correspondent

The country keen to strengthen its economic base through various measures

— Photo: V. Ganesan

Promoting export: Prasanta Bhushan Barua, Joint Secretary to the Bangladesh Government, addressing a meeting in Chennai on Friday. Jawahar Vadivelu (centre), vice-president, SICCI, and Mahmudul Islam, Director, Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh, are in the picture.

CHENNAI: Two more Export Processing Zones (EPZs) will be set up in Bangladesh in a year’s time, said Prasanta Bhushan Barua, Joint Secretary to the Bangladesh Government, on Friday.

Mr.Barua, who is also the Member (Investment Promotion) of Bangladesh Export Promotion Zones Authority (BEPZA), arrived here on Friday after visiting Mauritius and Colombo.

Accompanied by three others, Mr.Barua visited Madras Export Processing Zone and Mahindra World City to discuss Special Economic Zone and BEPZA policies.

Eight EPZs

Addressing the members of the Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI), he said that Bangladesh houses eight EPZs.

The first EPZ was set up in Chittagong in 1983 and the second one in Dhaka in 1993.

Currently, 299 units are functioning in the eight EPZs and another 202 units are in the various stages of implementation.

They would become operational within a year.

“The new EPZs are coming up at Feni and Meghna. The Feni EPZ is 100 km from Chittagong and Meghna, 50 km from Dhaka. Feni has a zone area of 300 acres, while Meghna around 500 acres. The Bangladesh Government had just approved these EPZs. Land acquisition is going on and it will be a reality in a year,” he said.

IT and ITES

Mr.Barua also said that they were not able to set up Special Economic Zones for IT and ITES due to non-availability of experts. Around 11 Indian firms had set up their units in Bangladesh and another three to four were in the pipeline.

“We are here to strengthen the economic base of Bangladesh through various measures such as transfer of technology, investment promotion, export promotion, employment generation and providing backward and forward linkages,” he added.

Mutual benefit

Jawahar Vadivelu, SICCI vice-president urged the apex Chamber in Bangladesh to interact with regional chambers like SICCI in India to benefit mutually.

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