Bepza Activities-III
25,000 retrenched workers yet to be accommodated in Adamjee, Karnaphuli EPZs
Jasim Uddin Khan
As many as 25000 retrenched workers' ray of hope of being employed in the newly shaped areas of defunct Adamjee Jute Mills and Chittagong Steel Mills has now been dashed for Bepza's (Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority) failure to accommodate them even after lapses of several years.The fallen lands of the mills that were closed down on pressures from donor agencies like World Bank and IMF were turned into two separate export processing zones as per a government decision in 2004. These two zones are Adamjee EPZ and Karnaphuli EPZ. Although the jobless workers were assured of employments in the industrial units at these EPZs, the Bepza is yet to fulfil their promise, according to some of such workers who are learnt to have long been facing severe hardship. Abdul Motaleb (45), a former foreman of Adamjee Jute Mills, said, "The Admajee workers are thrown into uncertainty. The Bepza has been refusing their appeals for getting their jobs." When contacted, a Bepza senior official said that the government is aware of the problems and sincere about accommodating the retrenched workers in the local and foreign industrial units at the Adamjee and Karnaphuli EPZs, but these workers lack the skills needed for those state of art technology based industries. "We negotiated some of the new industries set up by the entrepreneurs mostly from South Korea, Hong Kong and Germany, but they refused our proposals and asked for skilled workers," the official added. The previous BNP government on June 30, 2002 declared closer of Adamjee Jute Mills, the biggest jute industry in the world with an cumulative losses of Tk 1200 crore. The Adamjee EPZ will have 200 plots of which 103 have so far been developed and 37 already handed over to four foreign companies. According to the Bepza, 28 foreign and local investors have submitted proposals to establish units in the Adamjee EPZ. When the units are fully operational, the Bepza expects $750 million annual exports from the zone. This EPZ formally went into operation on March 6, 2006. Bepza Executive Chairman Brigadier General Ashraf Abdullah Yussuf told The Daily Star that they would help the retrenched workers to get jobs in the newly set up industries through imparting them training at the two Bepza training institutes where the Adamjee workers and their spouses would get the chance to improve their skills. " Without any modern technical know-how, how they will be accommodated by the foreign and local entrepreneurs", Yussuf questioned. (concluded)
| 
