Investors prefer BD to Thailand-Malaysia

Foreign investors are choosing Bangladesh as investment destination due to low labour cost comparing to that of other countries, including China and Vietnam.

In China, the average wage of a worker is 500 US dollar, in Vietnam it is 300 US dollar while in Bangladesh the average wage is 60 US dollar.

Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Area (BEPZA) Major General KM Mominur Rahman said this at a press conference at BEPZA office on Wednesday last.

He also claimed that Bangladesh is going to be a developed country soon.

Due to high wage of labour in China, the investors went to Thailand and Malaysia much ago and that is why the wage format increased to 300 US dollar in these countries.

On the other hand, the average monthly wage of a worker in Bangladesh is only 60 to 65 US dollar, he told the newsmen.

BEPZA chairman said, “Due to big difference in labor wage the production oriented companies are failing to compete with other companies, which has made them compelled to relocate their factories in Bangladesh.”

He informed the journalists many big companies are going to close their factories in China, Malaysia and Thailand and Bangladesh is their first choice.

PH garments has come to Bangladesh closing their business in Thailand. The world famous company has been accommodated in Karnaphuli Export Processing Zone.

On the other hand, Global Label has come to Bangladesh closing their factories in Malaysia. These two companies have already started their production.

The world famous Samsung wants to come here. The company has sent a proposal demanding 500 plots.

The government is actively considering their proposal. But such vast land is not available now in Dhaka and Chittagong. So, consideration is going on for a new land by the side of Chittagong EPZ. The size of their investment will be around one billion dollar.

He also claimed that five big companies of China also want to come to Bangladesh after closing their businesses in Thailand and Malaysia.

Whenever big factories will be established here, the unemployment problem is likely to be over.

BEPZA chairman also claimed that the very outfit of the country will be changed.

He said, “The door of possibilities has opened and we are to use it rightly so that we do not miss the chance.”

He said, “In July-February period we were compelled to refuse investment of 150 million dollar as we failed to allot their desired amount of land.”

Now BEPZA is thinking to expand the EPZ areas vertically which would facilitate to accommodate small factories in one building.

BEPZA earns 1.6 US dollar for one square meter per year as rent of the land while it earns 2.75 as rent of space. So, its income will also increase claimed the chairman.

The government has a plan to create new economic zone that would help enhancement of investment in the country, informed the chairman.

Praising our labors BEPZA chairman informed that the foreigners have formed a positive idea about them and now they are going to overseas countries as trainer.

Recently three of our workers visited Japan for imparting training on LED chips manufacturing. They stayed there for few days to train up Japanese workers.

He said, “Our workers are more sincere and skill than the Chinese even. This evaluation was done by the Chinese not of mine.”

Referring to country’s volatile political situation he said the country’s political parties are always playing a vital role in functioning of BEPZA.

It may be mentioned here that in first eight months of the current fiscal, goods worth 3060 US dollar were exported which is 13.27 percent higher of the same period of last year.

In 8 EPZ areas of the country, the size of the investment is 2679 US dollar. Permission was accorded to 561 factories in these EPZ. Of them, 415 have gone into production while 146 are under implementation.

Of the running 415 factories, 234 are absolutely foreign and 119 are local while 62 factories are owned by joint venture. Some 358,772 workers are employed in those factories. The female workers comprise 64 percent of the total employed. banglanews24.com

Leave a Reply