BEZA gives final approval to Kishoreganj Economic Zone

The Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority or BEZA has given the green light to the Kishoreganj Economic Zone or KEZ, a concern of Nitol-Niloy Group, to begin operations.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 18 Feb 2019, 05:06 PM
Updated : 18 Feb 2019, 05:06 PM

The KEZ, the country’s ninth private economic zone, was set up on 91.63 acres of land in Pakundia Upazila near the Bhairab-Kishoreganj Highway. It is expected to create jobs for 5,000 people directly and 20,000 people indirectly within the first five years of operations.

Md Abul Kalam Azad, chief coordinator for Sustainable Development Goals Affairs under the Prime Minister's Office, handed the licence over to KEZ Managing Director Abdul Musabbir Ahmad and Nitol Niloy Group Vice Chairperson Selima Ahmad at an event at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center in Dhaka on Monday.

Since its inception, the BEZA has given its final approval to nine, including KEZ, and pre-qualification licences to 19 economic zones in the private sector.

It issued the licences as part of the government’s plan to establish 100 economic zones and create 10 million job opportunities in 15 years.

The Nitol-Niloy Group in joint venture with the TATA Motors, India's largest automobile manufacturer, has already set up a plant at the KEZ to produce the automobiles. A steel maker of India is in talks for making investment there.

Also, investment efforts in other sectors, including electric cars, agro-based food and beverages, garments, textiles, information technology and telecommunications, are under way, according to the KEZ authorities.

Speaking at the event Azad said, "We are now going through the 4th industrial revolution. To keep pace with this, we must speed up our work and choose the technologies of industrial factories carefully."

The KEZ managing director said Bangladesh can be developed by boosting investment and creating employment through establishing such economic zones.

“Those companies that are keen to invest in Bangladesh with new technologies will be given priority here. Already half of the land has been rented out. We are in talks with others for renting out the rest.”

The new four-wheeler will be built in this new economy zone, said Musabbir.

Selima Ahmad, also an MP, said the economic zone will not only generate employment but also create new entrepreneurs. The Nitol-Niloy Group has chosen the cropland that yields a single crop to establish the economic zone in compliance with the instruction of the prime minister.

BEZA Executive Chairman Paban Chowdhury said the businessmen need to wait more than six months to get trade licences. “It also took six months for the Nitol-Niloy Group to get the licence. From now on, the BEZA itself will issue trade licence so that the businessmen need not run around government offices.”