Four industrial units get 205 acres of land at Mongla EZ

FT ONLINE

Four industrial units on Monday received an allocation for 205 acres of land at the Mongla Economic Zone near the Mongla seaport.

These are NAGA Limited, PowerPac Petroleum limited, PowerPac Mutiara Khulna Power Plant Limited and PowerPac Steel Mills Limited.

Besides, two financial institutions such as National Bank Limited and Sikder Insurance Company Limited got office space allocation in the same EZ.

The handing over took place at the 'invest promotion of Powerpac Economic Zone, Mongla' programme at a city hotel on Monday, jointly organised by Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) and the PowerPac Economic Zone Private Limited, a concern of Sikder Group.

Prime Minister's Private Industry and Investment Adviser Salman F Rahman attended the ceremony as the chief guest, while BEZA Executive Chairman Paban Chowdhury presided over the function.

Principal Coordinator of SDG Affairs at the Prime Minister's Office Md Abul Kalam Azad spoke on the occasion as the special guest.

Executive Member of BEZA Mohammed Ayub and PowerPac Economic Zone Pvt Limited Managing Director Ron Haque Sikder attended the programme among others.

In his speech, Paban Chowdhury said the EZs are now drawing good attention from the investors at home and abroad after ups and downs since the BEZA started its journey.

"In the beginning, there were very limited responses from the businesses about the EZ. But the government's policy support and other initiatives are now changing the scenario," he said.

He also said that the One-Stop Service (OSS) for the investors is set to launch formally soon.

BEZA signed the developer agreement with the PowerPac Economic Zone Private Limited in 2016 to Design, Build, Finance, Own, Operate and Transfer (DBFOOT) of Mongla Economic Zone for a period of 50 years.

The Mongla EZ has been developed as the first Public-Private Partnership basis economic zone in the country.

The project officials said the EZ is located beside the Mongla River. Mongla seaport is less than a kilometre from the zone.

They also said that 44 percent of the land in the EZ has already been allocated to different industrial units. Some 30 percent of the total land has been identified as green and open spaces.

The zone will be divided into blocks of appropriate sizes, which could be subdivided into plots according to the layout plan, they added.