City Group to build Tk 5,000cr hi-tech park

City Group, one of the country's leading consumer goods processor and manufacturer, is to going to build a hi-tech park investing Tk 5,000 crore to manufacture technology products such as microprocessors, chips, circuits, mobile phones and laptops.

The 115-acre City Hi-Tech Park, which will be developed at Demra of the capital city of Dhaka, also looks to house global tech giants.

"We aim to establish a world-class high-tech park and we look forward to attracting some foreign investors," said Biswajit Saha, director for corporate and regulatory affairs.

There will be all sorts of facilities for recreation and a dormitory. This will create job opportunities for around 15,000 people, said Saha after City Group signed an agreement with Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka yesterday.

Md Hasan, the park chairman, and Bikarna Kumar Ghosh, the authority managing director, signed the deal.

The park's investors will get 14 facilities and one-stop service from the authority.

City Group said it began preparing a masterplan, a feasibility study and an environmental survey on receiving permission to set up the park in May.

"This is the biggest private high-tech park in the country. And they will make all sorts of digital devices under our rules and regulations," Ghosh told The Daily Star.

There are three public high-tech parks in Gazipur, Sylhet and Rajshahi and five software technology parks and training centres under the authority, according to Ghosh.

By 2027, there will be 39 high-tech or software technology parks and 64 Sheikh Kamal IT training and incubation centres across the country.

"Some have already been completed, some under construction and some in the planning phase," said Ghosh.

City Group's move comes as part of its attempt to diversity products in line with the 4th industrial revolution, introducing artificial intelligence, robotics and the internet of things.

The group manufactures and supplies about one third of the total consumer goods of Bangladesh.

"Everything will be changed in future, so we came here as this is the future," said Saha.

It will develop all kinds of off-site and on-site facilities, conduct earth filling, and construct electricity, gas and water supply infrastructure, buildings, roads, lakes and food courts inside the park.

"City Group is a popular name in the country and abroad. Other companies in the country will also be encouraged as big companies like it are coming forward to set up high-tech parks," said NM Zeaul Alam, senior secretary to the ICT Division.

"City Group will develop the park as soon as possible to create a vibrant working environment," he said.

Hasan, the park chairman and director of City Group, said, "We will make electronics and technology products that no one could even think of making in Bangladesh."

In 2016, the authority recognised Fair Group's Fair Electronics manufacturing plant in Narsingdi, where Samsung mobile phones and other products are manufactured, as a private high-tech park.

Walton Digi-Tech Industries was announced as a private hi-tech park by the authority on September 9, 2020.

It manufacturers IT products like laptops, computers and accessories, mobile phones and motherboards.

Halima Group, an electronics goods maker, also got such recognition, according to Ghosh of the authority.

He said the recognition enables private high-tech parks to get a 10-year tax holiday, duty free import of capital machinery, tax waiver on foreign expats' salaries and duty free utility bills while foreign investors can withdraw their investments anytime.

Launched in 1972 with "CITY OIL MILLS", City Group now has about 40 sister concerns, each specialising in different products and services.