Red tape holds up RMG park
The construction of a garment park at Bausia in Munshiganj is being delayed due to bureaucratic indecision, industry insiders said.
The idea for construction of the garment park under public-private partnership (PPP) to relocate the city's garment factories was forwarded by the planning ministry to the industries ministry a few years ago.
But the industries ministry, upon recommendation from the commerce ministry on July 25, changed its stance on the grounds that the PPP model would be time-consuming and unfeasible in Bangladesh.
The commerce ministry, instead, suggested constructing the garment park using government funds and then selling the plots on to the entrepreneurs at market rates, said a senior commerce ministry official.
Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), a concern of the industries ministry, is in charge of implementing the project.
“The industries ministry again sought opinion from the planning ministry on whether the garment park would be built under the PPP model or government funding,” BSCIC Chairman M Fakhrul Islam said.
“BSCIC is now waiting for the government's nod,” Islam added.
Meanwhile, the garment owners are urging the government to accelerate the construction of the park.
“If the garment factories are relocated from the city, the living cost of the workers will come down significantly,” said Siddiqur Rahman, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, while adding that traffic movement in the city would improve, too.
He said the leaders of the association plan to meet with Industries Minister Dilip Barua again after October 10, when the minister would be free from his D-8 commitments.
The park, to be built on 300 acres of land with Tk 438 crore, would come with infrastructure like drainage system, uninterrupted utility supply, central effluent treatment plant, waste-dumping yard and fire-fighting equipment.
Comments