 | KEPZ gets licence after 5 years of wait
30 September, 2006
After five years of delay, the government yesterday finally decided to award operating licence to the country's biggest private export zone -- Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) -- highly placed sources said.
The decision was taken at the 12th meeting of the Private EPZ Board of Governors chaired by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia at her office (PMO). The board last met in April 2003.
The KEPZ authorities will be formally informed of the decision soon. And they will have to deposit $100,000 as licence fee, instead of the previously fixed $20,000, the sources said.
Between 1999 and 2003, the KEPZ spearheaded by Korean company Youngone had invested about Tk 100 crore to procure 2,500 acres of land for the export zone and develop it. But the BNP-led alliance government declined to give it operating licence without any explicit reasons.
Sources said the PMO decided to review the KEPZ case last month, considering that the investors have already suffered a lot and that there is no clear reason for not awarding it operating licence.
The KEPZ with its size and investment profile stands out from all the EPZs in the country. It plans to install 500 industrial units with an investment of $1billion. KEPZ sources said they plan to set up a whole range of garments and textiles units plus electronics, software, scientific and optical tools, machine tools, automotive parts and other units there. To build its infrastructure, Youngone will separately invest $200 million.
"When we will be formally informed of the decision, we expect to bring in investors immediately and start export from the zone within two years," said a KEPZ source requesting anonymity.
The KEPZ would directly employ about 100,000 people and indirectly another 200,000 people.
After coming to power in 2001, the BNP-led four-party coalition government started viewing the KEPZ as a 'political beneficiary' of the previous Awami League (AL) government although the process of setting up the KEPZ started back in 1995 under the previous BNP government.
From early 2002, the PMO formed several committees to look into 'irregularities' in the KEPZ and the private EPZ Act that was framed during the AL rule. The first committee verbally asked the KEPZ authorities why they needed an area as huge as 2,500 acres and hinted that they could do away with 500 acres.
Then in November 2003, a high-powered committee headed by the principal secretary recommended that there is no need to change the Private EPZ Act and said, 'in the interest of national image and foreign investment', the KEPZ should be allowed to function without any delay.
Despite this, the issue remained nearly shelved while the KEPZ authorities kept on requesting the government to issue operating licence. At one stage, a powerful minister's son approached the KEPZ authorities indicating that he can resolve all the troubles for a 'fee' of $ 3 million.
Between 2002 and 2006, many foreign investors visited the KEPZ site expressing their interest to invest there. Youngone group on the other hand diverted more than $40 million, earmarked for investment in the KEPZ, to Vietnam, China and India.
Release link:http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/09/27/d6092701022.htm
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