The Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority will go for aggressive marketing this year to attract investment in three EPZs that remain under-utilised. The EPZs are Mongla, Ishwardi and Uttara in Nilphamari district. BEPZA will take an aggressive approach to attract both domestic and foreign investments in these EPZs,’ BEPZA chairman Brig Gen Ashraf Abdullah Yussuf told a press briefing at his office on BEPZA’s activities in the just concluded fiscal 2006-07. The BEPZA chairman identified the lack of gas and airport facilities as major obstacles to investment and the cause for the poor investment scenario at Mongla and Uttara EPZs.

So far a total of $1.13 billion has been invested in eight EPZs in the country, according to BEPZA. Of this, $152.37 million was invested in the immediate past financial year, an increase of 35 per cent over FY 2005-06’s $112.89 million. Some 49 industrial organisations signed agreements worth $566 million with BEPZA during FY 2006-07. This investment will come into force in the current fiscal year. The export target for EPZs for the current fiscal is $2.3 billion, up from $2.06 billion in FY 2006-07 and $1.83 billion in FY 2005-06.

Speaking of BEPZA’s activities as affected by industrial labour issues, Ashraf Abdullah Yussuf said he took the office last year in a situation of serious labour unrest. ‘Now there is no labour unrest. They (the workers) are getting their due payments with all sorts of benefits, including provident fund, leave and other allowances,’ he said. Wage increases alone had cost the Dhaka and Chittagong EPZs Tk 252 crore in FY 2006-07, said the chairman

According to official data, some 2.01 lakh workers are employed in the EPZs and 23,000 were added in the immediate past fiscal year. BEPZA has also taken steps to set up two power plants to avert the power crisis that costs investors hugely.