Texas Clothing to invest $8.5m in Uttara EPZ

A Bangladeshi company, M/s Texas Clothing Limited, will establish a garments manufacturing industry in Uttara Export Processing Zone (UEPZ) with an investment of US$ 8.5 million.

An agreement to this effect was signed between Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) and the company at BEPZA Complex, Dhaka, on Wednesday, said the company in a statement.

BEPZA Executive Chairman Major General Abul Kalam Mohammad Ziaur Rahman, Member (Investment Promotion) Ali Reza Mazid and Texas Clothing Managing Director Md Forhad Hossan signed the agreement.

The company will produce annually 7 million pieces of different garment items like woven shirts, denim pants, twill pants, jackets and woven bottoms. This company will create employment opportunities for 1450 Bangladeshi nationals.

Among others, Member (Engineering) Mohammad Faruque Alam, Executive Director (Public Relations) Nazma Binte Alamgir and Executive Director (Investment Promotion) Md Tanvir Hossain were present during the agreement signing ceremony.

Uttara EPZ, one of the eight EPZs in the country operated under the BEPZA, is located at Sangalshi in Syedpur upazila of Nilphamari.

Apart from local investors, China, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom also invested at the EPZ.

Factories at the EPZ are manufacturing a variety of products such as world-famous brand Michael Kors handbags, wigs, spectacle frames and sunglasses, toys, bamboo-cane coffins, sweaters and garment accessories.

Uttara EPZ was established in 2001 to create massive employment through industrialisation in the northern swathe of the country. The EPZ, built on 212 acres of land, has become the centre of income-generating activities in the region. Many small ventures have sprawled centring the EPZ, thus increasing the local cash flow.

At the EPZ, around 66 per cent of the workers are women as the export processing zone in the faraway district is contributing to women empowerment.

After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to power in 1996, she initiated the process to set up Uttara EPZ and inaugurated it in 2001.