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Move finally for green signal to Korean EPZ

SHARIER KHAN
After keeping Korean investors in limbo for more than three years, the government is finally considering giving green signal to the country's biggest and lone private Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) in Chittagong.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia may hold a meeting with the KEPZ authorities later this month prior to awarding them the licence to launch operation, sources at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.
The BNP-led four-party alliance government has so far refrained from awarding this licence although the KEPZ-- formed by Korean company Youngone-- has spent around Tk 100 crore to develop the KEPZ infrastructure located in a hilly site by the Karnaphuli river.
Although there is no official explanation for this, unofficially it is said the BNP looks at the Koreans as 'beneficiaries' of the previous Awami League (AL) government.
The AL government handed over 2,500 acres of land to the Korean investors and completed most formalities to let them start the
KEPZ back in 2001.
The KEPZ, by its size and investment profile, stands out from all other EPZs in the country. It plans to install 500 industrial units with an investment of $1 billion and provide jobs to more than one lakh people.
Unlike the other EPZs, this world-class export processing zone lays out an ideal plan of having dorms, recreational facilities like golf course, school, training centres, convention centres and guest houses accommodating one lakh people. KEPZ sources said they plan to set up a whole range of garments and textiles units plus electronics, software, scientific and optical tools, machine tools, automotive parts and other units there. To set up its infrastructure, Youngone will separately invest $200 million.
PMO sources said that following recent press reports on the KEPZ, and Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman's visit to South Korea in late March, the issue has been revived.
During his visit to Seoul in connection with an international seminar, Saifur met the Korean finance minister who inquired about the status of the KEPZ. Saifur told him that he would discuss the matter with the prime minister soon, and he did it after his return home.
Since early 2002, the PMO formed several committees to look into irregularities in the KEPZ and the Private EPZ Act framed during the AL rule. The first committee verbally asked the KEPZ why it needed an area as huge as 2,500 acres and hinted that it could do away with 500 acres.
Finally in November 2003, a high-powered committee headed by the principal secretary recommended that there is no need to change the Private EPZ Act and said, "in the interest of national image and foreign investment," the KEPZ should be allowed to function without any delay.
No follow-up action was however taken. "But considering the prospect of KEPZ to bring in huge foreign direct investment, and relationship with Korea, the prime minister is now agreeable to awarding the licence," a PMO source said.
The PM heads a Board of Governors to deal with private EPZ licensing under the Private EPZ Act. The board last met in April 2003.
The country's government-run five EPZs have 203 units with a total investment of 748 million dollars.
The country's first EPZ set up in Chittagong in 1983 has 119 industrial units on a 453-acre site. The Dhaka EPZ set up in 1993 has 72 units on 355 acres. The other EPZs set up after 2001 have only a few units -- the 191-acre Mongla EPZ has five units, 258 -acre Comilla EPZ six units and 233-acre Syedpur EPZ only one unit.
Youngone dominates these five EPZs with 25 percent of the total investment and its 16 units employing more than 30,000 people and exporting goods worth over $220 million.