Dhaka – Bangladesh’s National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday approved the proposed Chinese Economic & Industrial Zone to be set up on 774.25 acres of land at Anwara, Chittagong involving Tk 420.37 crore exclusively for Chinese investors.
The approval was given to the project, officially known as ‘Acquisition of Land for Development of Anwara-2 Economic Zone, at the 7th Ecnec meeting of the current fiscal year held at the NEC conference room held with Ecnec chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair,
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the move for setting up exclusive Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone comes after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proposed an industrial zone during her visit to China on June 6-11 last year. The Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) also signed an agreement with the Commerce Ministry of China during the visit.
BEZA under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) will implement the project by June, 2016.
The Planning Minister said such Special Economic Zones are there in 119 countries across the world with 2031 are in operation. Out of that number, 436 are in India, 460 in China and about 200 in the Philippines.
The project aims to create a congenial business environment for attracting Chinese companies there as well as creating scopes for jobs for ensuring sustainable economic development.
As per the deal signed with Chinese Commerce Ministry, Bangladesh will provide land to Chinese investors on a long-term lease basis and a firm nominated by China will set up the economic zone on the land.
Once the project is implemented, huge jobs will be created for Bangladeshis.
Ministers and State Ministers attended the meeting. Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned were present. – News Desk
