Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) will form a company by this month to establish an industrial park at Bausia in Munshiganj for the country’s apparel makers.
The decision came at a board meeting of BGMEA at its office in Dhaka yesterday with president M Atiqul Islam in the chair.
“We are going to form a company to set up an industrial park at Bausia in Munshiganj for the RMG industry,” said M Atiqul Islam.
He added the non-compliant factories will be relocated at the park.
BGMEA chief said small and medium entrepreneurs will get priority in the allotment of plots, and if the SMEs fail to pay for their allotted plots, others will get opportunity.
As per decision at the meeting, the company will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hong Kong KRD International Investment Group Ltd for establishing the park.
The KRD will fund Tk1,400 crore for land acquisition and development, said BGMEA vice president Shahidullah Azim.
He said the industrial park will be established on 532 acres of land, of which 30% will be used for infrastructural development and the rest for factories.
He said BGMEA received over 1,700 applications from the garment makers against 432 units to be allocated in the proposed park.
The plots will be of different sizes-one-bigha, three-bigha and five-bigha. The price of plot will be set at Tk1.2 crore per bigha.
An apparel maker who exports products $1.2m and above will have to pay 40% of total plot value as down payment to get a plot.
And the RMG owner who exports below $1.2m will have to pay 20% of the price as down payment.
First vice president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Mohammad Hatem said there will have a joint committee of BGMEA and BKMEA.
The committee will oversee implementation of the total project and plot allotments.
BKMEA has received 119 applications from its members for plots in the park, said Mohammad Hatem.
“The non-compliant RMG factories will be relocated in the industrial park to make the country’s apparel industry compliant. Hope, such steps will help to avert factory accidents,” the BKMEA leader told the Dhaka Tribune.
The park will have facilities like power station, fire brigade, child care, police station, bank, river port, pump house, solid wastage pump, central effluent treatment plant (CETP) and dumping yard.
Last year, the government took initiative to establish a garment industrial park at Bausia in Gajaria upazila of Munshiganj to relocate RMG units from the capital and adjoining areas.
Some grisly factory accidents including Tazreen Fashion fire and Rana Plaza collapse prompted the government to take the move.
Source: Dhaka Tribune