Business Desk :
Textile zone at the Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) in Chattogram will become a “textile hub” in Bangladesh bringing a lot of businesses if the required support is provided to “quickly and fully ” implement it, says the Youngone chief.
He said the five mega factories, if completed, will have a combined floor space of over 2,000,000 sft.
“Bangladesh needs to make a lot of efforts to produce and supply more manmade fibre (MMF) so that such a supply chain is established successfully here,” said South Korea-based global conglomerate Youngone Corporation Chairman and CEO Kihak Sung.
He said such efforts will help Bangladesh get a lot of businesses, not losing everything to Vietnam. “That’s my challenge now.”
During an interaction at the KEPZ recently, Sung said they have a budget to invest another US$ 400 million of their investment. “As long as we’re competitive and customers can take our goods and they make a profit, then we can increase it (investment volume).”
Youngone already started manufacturing polyester fabrics at the two latest state-of-the-art polyester product factories with a floor space of over 430,000 for each which will be expanded to two more similar units for export and supply of high-quality products to garments and apparel factories in Bangladesh as an import substitute and backward linkage.
“We want to be really supportive of Bangladesh garment factories. We need to make raw materials, garments and everything here,” Sung said, adding that quality energy supply still remains the main challenge.
He said they are applying for the generation of captive power in the KEPZ to meet “essential demand of quality” power supply for the sophisticated textile industries.
“We’re appealing to the government to give us a license very quickly so that we can run and produce high quality products for Bangladesh garment factories,” Sung who is also Honorary Chairman of Korean Federation of Textile Industries (KOFOTI).
