Industrial zoning idea

Just to measure the success of EPZs in the last five years, exports from them increased by 86 percent to reach US$702crore compared with US$377crore over the preceding half a decade. Investment in EPZ over the past five years increased by 81.54 percent with 67,825 Bangladeshis in their employ.

The Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (BEPZA) in its last meeting of the Board of Governors has approved its organogram, rather belatedly, we have to say. But most significantly, it has given a green signal for 'security outsourcing in EPZs, expansion of Comilla EPZ, bringing 184-acre land of Chittagong Steel Mills under Karnaphuli EPZ, installation of underground water network in Chittagong EPZ, setting up of a container terminal on the Shitalakhya river beside Adamjee EPZ and construction of two hospitals in Dhaka and Chittagong EPZs.'

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While evidently fresh efforts are getting underway for the growth, beefing up and advancement of the export processing zones, there is a palpable farsighted realisation that vertical expansion of EPZs can reach an inelastic point today or tomorrow. With that end in view, the Board of Governors of BEPZA in their eagerness to break new grounds have embraced the idea of establishing investment zones which obviously struck a responsive chord in the BoI. The investment zones will differ from the EPZs in that the latter has the fiscal incentive like ten years' tax holiday while the former will have the whole array of non-fiscal incentives alright but not the tax holiday. The taxes will accrue to the government. On the other hand, the products of the investment zones would be marketed both locally and internationally whereas goods from EPZs are only for the export market.

The big hope for the investment zones emanate from the enormous growth of private domestic entrepreneurship that the country has been blessed with lately. All that they need is a secure place to set up an industry free from any land acquisition hassle, utility connections, a good hinterland, marketing network and communication facilities. The industrial zones can provide backward linkages to the export industries in the EPZs. We would like such zones to be the hubs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The concept can also be linked to the tertiary growth centres.