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Youngone's factory in KEPZ misses deadline for takeoff

Refayet Ullah Mirdha
South Korean company Youngone Corporation has missed its schedule to put its shoe-making plant into operation because of uncertainty over gas connections to the Korean Export Processing Zone, near the southeastern port city of Chittagong.
The KEPZ was scheduled to begin its journey in the middle of the current year by starting the shoe -manufacturing factory as its first industrial unit.
The shoe-making factory, arguably the world's largest with 72 assembly lines, will employ 34,000 people on completion and produce more than 100,000 pairs of shoes a day, which means 30 million pairs a year, forexport.
Talking to The Daily Star, a senior Youngone official said it would take the factory some more time to go into operation, as gas connections to the KEPZ remained in uncertainty.
"We have demanded a minimum of 10 million cubic feet of gas for running our factory although we need more than 80 million cubic feet o gas," the official said, asking not to be named.
"We have not yet received any commitment about gas connections to the KEPZ from the government. We are lobbying with different government agencies and Bakhrabad Gas
Distribution Company for gas connections," said a senior manager of the KEPZ.
Although most of infrastructural work has already been completed, it cannot come on stream because of an acute gas crisis in Chittagong region, the official said.
The cabinet at a recent meeting decided to provide an additional 20 million cubic feet gas and set up a 50-MW rental power plant for immediate and short-term solutions to the acute gas and power crises in Chittagong.
Licensed to operate in May last year after a delay of seven years, the KEPZ stands out of other EPZs with its plan to install 500 industrial units worth a $1 billion investment and create about 100,000 direct employments.
Youngone Group had recently set up a shoe factory in Chittagong EPZ.
Between 1999 and 2003, Youngone invested about Tk 100 crore to procure 2,500 acres of land for the EPZ and develop it under the private EPZ law.
However, it could not open the zone as the BNP-led alliance government declined to give it an operating licence without any express reason. Youngone started its operation in Bangladesh in 1978 and grew into a company that boasts yearly export earnings of about $300 million.
reefat@thedailystar.net