Economic Reporter :
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) Industrial Park is expected to be ready soon for setting up industries there and the government has planned to start allocation of plots of the park from October.
Disclosing this at a press conference on Sunday industries minister Amir Hossain Amu announced to extend the time for payment of the price of allocated plots to 10 years from five years and service charge will be brought down to 12 percent from 20 percent.
“Over 90 percent of the construction work of the API park have already been completed and we have planned to begin allocation of plots of the park from October,” Amu said during the press conference organized after a review meeting with the representatives of Bangladesh Aushad Shilpa Malik Samity.
The meeting decided to allocate plots in favor of 42 industrial units and set up a Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) at the park with the own financing of the entrepreneurs.
Amu hoped that raw material imports for the drug industry would come down by 70 percent when the park will start operation under Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC).
Terming the pharmaceuticals as a rising industrial sector in Bangladesh, the industries minister said Bangladesh exports medicines to 133 countries in the world at present. As a least developed country Bangladesh will continue to enjoy the facility of manufacturing patented drugs up to 2033 as per the WTO’s decision, Amu urged the drug manufacturers to take quick steps to set up industries in API park to tap the opportunity.
SM Safiuddin Sarker, secretary general of Bangladesh Aushad Shilpa Malik Samity, thanked the government for taking quick steps to complete the construction work of API. He also thanked the industries minister for extending the time for payment of the price of the allocated plots and bringing down the service charge to 12 percent from 20 percent.
