Chattogram Bureau :
The country’s first private export processing zone in Chattogram’s Rangunia is yet to be launched, although the foundation stone was laid 23 years ago in 1999.
The EPZ on Karnaphuli river bank was to have an IT hub and an agro valley that would generate 50,000 jobs. But 550 acres of land earmarked for the EPZ at Jungle Ghatcheck area are still covered by shrubs and vines.
After coming to power in 1996, the Awami League government passed a bill called ‘Private Export Processing Zones (EPZS),’ which became law in less than a month. At the first meeting of the board of governors of EPZS, a proposal was placed to set up the first privately owned export processing zone in Rangunia.
When the government approved the proposal on 29 March 1998, ‘Chittagong Industrial Park Limited’ was formed. The foundation stone of the Rangunia EPZ was laid by the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 10 October 1999. The subsequent progress of the project is as bleak as the dreamy start. After the land survey in 1999, land documents were submitted to 13 local and foreign investors in 2000. But after the four-party coalition government took power in 2001, the project stalled.
