Economic zones for planned industrialisation stressed
September 29, 2008
Experts at a media briefing on Sunday emphasised that the country needed to go for planned industrialisation instead of the present disorganised one, setting up exclusive economic zones.
The International Finance Corporation’s Bangladesh chapter organised the programme in a Dhaka hotel where Mustafizul Hye Shakir, investment policy analyst of the World Bank’s private sector lending arm, detailed the benefits of economic zones and their success and failure stories.
He defined economic zone as a geographically delimited area with a special regime and a single administration that delivers services to zone tenants on a day-to-day basis.
Senior programme manager of IFC’s Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund Syed Akhter Mahmood, programme manager Martin Maxwell Norman and international expert on economic zones Deborah Porte also spoke on the occasion.
The experts and officials responded to a volley of questions from participant journalists about the necessity of establishing new economic zones, while the government failed to ensure energy supply and other facilities to the existing industries.
Syed Akhter Mahmood said the country could not afford to stop new investment citing gas and power crisis. ‘The government must find out alternative sources of energy and new investments will come in. So, now it is the matter whether we want industrialisation in an organised way or not,’ he added.
The council of advisers approved the Economic Zones Ordinance in principle two months back and the final approval is expected shortly, the meeting was told.
Source: New Age
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