Home ›› 21 Nov 2022 ›› Editorial
It is obviously good news for the country to have 100 economic zones amid worsening financial and political crises. If done, the country will see a tremendous industrial development in the not-too-distant future. The industrial enclaves will help Bangladesh go ahead one step further to graduate from a LDC status to that of a developing nation.
Not only that the country will also be placed among all other developing nations with its head holding high, dignity and prestige. The beginning of a new era of industrialization will also usher in a new and more modern life strengthening its economic foundation.
Unemployment that is gradually eroding away the confidence of the youth of our country will also get a boost as new industrialization will certainly generate employment significantly. Export will see a tremendous rise contributing considerably to mending our ailing economy.
As part of the planned 100 economic zones of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), 97 have already got approval of the government. Of them, fourteen local and foreign factories went into commercial operation in four economic zones across the country on November 20 with an investment of over $883 million.
Marking the golden jubilee of Bangladesh Independence on November 20 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself inaugurated commercial operation of four factories in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar (BSMSN) and laid the foundation stones of nine others in the industrial enclave. BEZA is one of the 97 economic zones planned to be built across the country.
The Business Post ran a report yesterday detailing that how the newly-built or to-be-built industries and factories are going to help immensely the country to move forward. The report said of the 97 economic zones, 28 are now at different stages of development. A total of 179 investors have been allocated land in various EZs with a proposed investment of $26 billion.
In 2015, the government set its target of setting up 100 economic zones in 15 years to generate one crore jobs and export $40 billion worth of goods and services from the enclaves. The target appears to be a bit vaulting ambition and if so then there is a probability that we may fall from our grace but up until now it has gone pretty well excepting a pretty long delay.
Now we have to wait and see if everything goes well till the end. Economists in the country think that if resources and capacity can’t be put together such over-ambitious project might finally come to a tragic end. The example is also there. Back in 1980s such initiative of developing industrial parks across the country went like crazy.
At that time, Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) of the government initiated to expand the industrial parks that started in late 1950s picking up steam in 1960s but they failed to continue as there were both lacks of capacity and resources. Either those industrial parks were wrongly located or poorly managed.
Most of them later simply vanished into the thin air never to be seen again. We don’t want the money spent on these industrial parks to go in vain nor do we want these 100 economic zones conceived even seven years before it was launched in 2015 to end up with the same fate.
We would like to think big as in these economic zones countries like Japan, China, India, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, United States of America, United Kingdom, Singapore, South Korea and Norway have already invested significantly.
We believe that this time the planned industrial enclaves across the country will not only be a slogan-mongering projects but vice versa. The government should think about quality rather than quantity as it is quality that increases the quantity finally.
