China to fast-track development of its economical zone in Ctg
China has finally made a decision to speed up the production of the dedicated Chinese Economic and Industrial Area (CEIZ) found in Chattogram mainly to benefit from the competitive benefit Bangladesh enjoys in global trade.
Primary Minister Sheikh Hasina had offered creation of the zone during her go to to China in 2014.
In 2015, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council had offered approval for CEIZ to be create exclusively for Chinese investors on 774.25 acres of land in Anwara upazila.
A CEIZ Development Company was as well formed by the zone's designated developer, China Harbour Engineering Enterprise, and Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (Beza) to perform the CEIZ.
To get the zone well prepared for prospective businesses, the Bangladesh federal government would provide Tk 420.37 crore while China Harbour $100 million.
But there have been little progress on bringing alive this first specialised government-to-government financial zone.
However, earlier this month, China Harbour wrote to Beza urgently seeking the signing of a deal which would allow them to start work on the CEIZ.
China Harbour said the $100 million was ready to be brought in while it had got businesses interested through promotional actions and follow ups predicated on Bangladesh's favourable expense environment and global trustworthiness of its parent organization, China Communications Construction Business (CCCC).
Over 60 enterprises have expressed their willingness to invest nearly $280 million to create businesses in CEIZ and wished to take 40 per cent of the territory of the area through sub-lease.
China Harbour has recently obtained all necessary approvals about the expenditure from the CCCC and China's Ministry of Commerce and the National Creation and Reform Commission.
The designs have already been finalised and China Harbour is ready to start work on infrastructure development, for which they are pushing the federal government, according to Jiang Wei, project representative of CEIZ.
"We will focus on four sectors for expenditure in the area -- logistics, manufacturing, chemical substance and readymade garment," he said.
The zone has usage of water transportation and is ideal for export-oriented industries because of its proximity to the Chattogram port, Bangladesh's largest sea port.
"The CEIZ should be able to eventually attract a lot more than $1 billion in foreign expense, create 60,000 to 90,000 new careers, directly or perhaps indirectly, and ultimately raise industrialisation and develop the economy of the encompassing Chattogram district," the business said.
Pointing out that the global market, including that of Bangladesh, possesses been hit hard simply by the Covid-19 pandemic, it said the speedy development of CEIZ might contribute to the recovery of Bangladesh's market and deepen economic ties between the two countries.
Talking with The Daily Star, Paban Chowdhury, executive chairman of Beza, stated the Chinese area was very thinking about rapid execution of the area for establishing factories and begin manufacturing.
Basically, Chinese investors happen to be interested in Bangladesh as they want to take advantage of the country's competitiveness in global trade, such as for example its eligibility for low tariffs, he said.
"We have to introduce long-term policies to ensure that investors may take initiatives about investment. That is also had a need to attract foreign direct expenditure,'' Chowdhury noted.
He said foreign traders have no question regarding the existing policies found in Bangladesh nevertheless they want those to be stable.
The policy stability issues, including those on taxes and custom duties, were described by a visiting Chinese delegation in November 2019. They mentioned to enjoy a the existing regulations for businesses.
Policy stability was had a need to help shareholders prepare their business method and avoid uncertainties while the world's second-largest economy looked to broaden it is footprint found in Bangladesh through investments and relocating factories, they said.
