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Govt sweetens deals for economic zones

Star Business Report
The government plans to provide numerous tax benefits in the proposed five economic zones to attract both foreign and domestic investments.
The land developers and unit investors in the economic zones will get very competitive packages, said Paban Chowdhury, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority, adding that they would be better than those offered by the other countries in the region.
Incentives include tax holiday and duty-free import of vehicles, he said, adding that the investors will not need to pay income taxes for their employees for at least ten years.
Chowdhury's comments came at a pre-bid meeting for the selection of a developer to design, build, finance, own, operate and transfer Mongla Economic Zone, held at Sonargaon
Hotel in Dhaka yesterday.
The proposed economic zone would be built on 205 acres of land situated in close proximity to Mongla Export Processing Zone in Bagherhat district on a public-private partnership model. The land will be leased by BEZA for a period of 30 years.
Six large national firms and four firms from India, China, Korea and Dubai have expressed their interest in participating in the bidding for development of the economic zone.
During the pre-bid meeting yesterday, Chowdhury assured the prospective bidders that the BEZA would not practise any red tape or bureaucracy.
BEZA will develop the off-site infrastructure. The tenders for approach road, administrative building, boundary wall and bridge have already been floated, with those for water supply, electric works and land filling on the
way, according to Harunur Rashid, project director of BEZA.
The government will invest around $6.41 million to develop the off-site infrastructure.
Economic zones are the newest version of export processing zones, Nazrul Islam, managing director of Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Company, said, adding that the government is focusing on the development of economic zones to bring in more private investment.
IIFC is a government-owned company that provides professional services to line ministries and agencies to develop infrastructure projects for private sector participation.
In export processing zones, only products for the export market can be manufactured, while in economic zones all types of goods can be produced. he government will provide land and tility, while the investing companies dll develop the infrastructure on their wn, Nurannabi Mridha, executive lember of BEZA's Planning & •evelopmentdivision, said.
The main objective of the pro-icts is to encourage local investors, [tract foreign investors, improve le overall investment climate and enerate employment, he said.
The government aims to develop ve special economic zones in longla, Moulvibazar, Sirajganj and Chittagong's Anwara and Mirersorai reas in the next two years.
All the five projects may create >bs for 1.5 crore people by 2021. he five economic zones will be
developed on 8,827.99 acres of land, accordingto the BEZA website.
Meanwhile, BEZA has already handed over the pre-qualification licence to AK Khan Company, the local conglomerate, for building a 200-acre special economic zone in Narsingdi, the first under the private sector.
The development of the zone is expected to be complete by 2015, said Paban Chowdhury, executive chairman of BEZA.
Once completed, foreign investment especially from Japan will increase significantly, he said, while citing a recent survey ofJLTRO which said that Japanese investors are considering Bangladesh as their first choice for investment.