The proposed South-west Bangladesh Economic Corridor (SWBEC) may help generate up to US$ 150 billion of economic output by 2050, if implemented in a well-coordinated manner, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has opined.
At the same time, the envisaged corridor, aimed to develop the country's backward south-west and north-west regions, may create up to 35 million jobs, the multilateral development financier revealed at a dissemination seminar in the capital on Tuesday.
Economic corridors are usually referred to as spatial organization of economic activity created by linking activities across space and increasing the density within a given space.
In the recent years, a number of countries and regions across the world have adopted the approach of economic corridor-led development. The examples include Greater Mekong Sub-Region of China and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor of India.
In Bangladesh, ADB is supporting the government in developing the concept of such economic corridors. Recently, it has prepared a study on the envisaged South-west Bangladesh Economic Corridor, and has submitted it to the government.
"SWBEC will have two nodes, which will contain industrial clusters supported by urban centres and trade gateways, and these economic centres will be connected by multimodal transport corridor," ADB experts said at the seminar.
"The industrial clusters will be developed to promote a set of 14 selected industries, which are mapped to them based on their suitability for the industries," they added.
The ADB experts informed that the Dhaka Node will see the development of 12 industrial sectors, resulting in an incremental land demand for around 45,000 acres by 2050, as against the current proposed supply of around 5,382 acres.
On the other hand, the Khulna Node will see the development of eight industrial sectors, resulting in an incremental total demand of around 9,000 acres by 2050, against the current availability of 2,300 acres, they also said.
The envisaged infrastructure would require mobilization of an estimated investment of US$ 140 billion in the next 30 years, the ADB study found.
The economic corridor will involve development of robust multimodal transportation networks, which will connect 3,500 kilometres of roads - to be build or upgraded in phases, 17 railway links and four inland container depots, eight river-ports or inland container terminals as well as two important inland water transport routes.
The corridor region will be serviced by airports in Dhaka, Bagerhat, Patuakhali, Barisal and Jessore. In addition, nine land-ports will be upgraded or developed for serving the corridor region.
Sea-ports at Mongla and Payra as well as ports in the Chittagong region will handle the traffic from the corridor, experts said. The ADB study also envisaged that these economic centres and transportation system will need support of a robust power infrastructure, capable of producing more than 7,000 MW of power and consisting of more than 180 new transmission sub-stations.
To implement the corridor plan, the six districts in the two nodes will need another 3,600 schools, 1,000 colleges, 200 technical and vocational institutes, 60 universities and 100,000 hospital beds.
ADB has also proposed to make Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) the main focal point for corridor planning, development and management with specific focus on ensuring coordination between ministries and agencies, escalating related ssues to PMO, corridor land use and planning as well as monitoring and development of trunk infrastructure.
Focusing on the proposed corridor, Finance Minister A M A Muhith emphasized better communication between the capital and the country's south-western region.
Noting that the recent times have seen global decline in the demands of garment products, he also focused on boosting the domestic demand to offset any external shock.
Noting that around thirty million people in the country still live below the poverty line, Mr Muhith said, "Increasing the domestic demand is also in line with our target of further poverty reduction."
Speaking on the occasion, Principal SDG Coordinator of Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Md. Abul Kalam Azad noted that the coastal areas should receive special attention under the proposed corridor.
"There are many places like Maheshkhali, Matarbari, Barguna, Patuakhali and Bhola, which still remain largely backward, and there are untapped opportunities for industrialization there."
He also emphasized the greater role of the private sector in implementing this plan. Executive Chairman of BIDA Kazi M Aminul Islam, ERD Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam, and ADB Country Director Manmohan Parkash also spoke on the occasion.
