The Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) is expecting a significant surge in investment in the coming days with multiple foreign firms showing interest to invest here.
Renowned Korean industrial conglomerate Youngone, the owner of the KEPZ, itself plans to invest nearly $400 million here, senior officials of the company said.
The investment will mainly be made in textile and IT (information technology) sector.
About the zone, Korean ambassador Lee Jang-keun says the KEPZ is a symbol of the Korea-Bangladesh ties.
"Youngone came here (Bangladesh) 40 years ago, setting a shining example. Youngone is one of the success stories we're showing all around the world."
"If we've more and more success stories like Youngone and KEPZ, more investors will come up," he told the FE.
The first-ever EPZ, developed and owned by a foreign company on 2,492-acre land on the Karnaphuli, is also going to house a state-of-the-art IT park.
World-class facilities for software development will be provided in the KEPZ Hi-Tech Park in a 41-storey building, officials said.
Narrating his future plan, Youngone chairman Kihak Sung said the KEPZ would be a 'textile hub' in Bangladesh if it gets required support from the government.
"We have a plan to invest nearly $200 million in building facilities to produce man-made fibre in the coming days," Mr Sung told the FE recently.
The textile zone of the KEPZ will have five mega factories covering the total floor space of more than 2,000,000 square feet.
Mr Sung said Youngone already started manufacturing polyester fabrics at the two latest state-of-the-art factories each having 430,000-square feet floor space.
Both factories will be expanded soon.
Mr Sung, presently the honorary chairman of the Korean Federation of Textile Industries, said they are applying for the generation of captive power in the KEPZ to meet "essential demand of quality" power supply for sophisticated textile industries.
But stakeholders express deep concern over the government's inaction to remove the hurdles which have been causing severe problems to this state-of-the-art project since the inception.
This could give a wrong signal to foreign investors, they said, adding that the problems were well-known to the authorities but these were not being resolved for a mysterious reason.
The two most significant hurdles are land mutation and removal of a gas pipeline, which runs across the KEPZ.
The KEPZ cannot construct two new plants for the Gas Ring Main (GRM) pipeline of Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company, currently passing diagonally from north to south in textile zone, officials said.
They said the authorities concerned were told about the problem, but no action was in sight yet.
When his attention was drawn to the issue, Mr Sung admitted that these are playing havoc with his company.
He said the KEPZ is committed to marching forward braving these hindrances.
The EPZ, located on the bank of the Karnaphuli, was incepted by the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in October 1999.
But up to now, officials said, it could not compete the land mutation due to bureaucratic tangles.
Multiple foreign firms like world-renowned Samsung recently showed interest to invest here but many shied away when they found the land mutation of the KEPZ area was incomplete, insiders said.
If the mutation was done, they said, dozens of leading global brands like Samsung would scramble to set up plants here.
When asked about the reason behind the delay, the Youngone chairman curtly said, "I don't know".
"I raised the issue with all concerned and they assured me of resolving the issue, but it remains unresolved. But we are going ahead."
According to KEPZ officials, the zone will be able to provide job opportunity for 300,00 people.
The KEPZ has 52-per cent green zone in the past 16 years it planted more than 2.0-million trees, said Jahangir Sadat, president of Youngone Bangladesh, while narrating its uniqueness.
It has created 17 reservoirs that conserve 360-million gallons of water and control floods and sediment flow in neighbouring settlements.
"These reservoirs provide water for the local ecosystem. In 2003, we introduced fish, which are now harvested as a food source," Sadat went on to say.
"The re-establishment of vegetation and water provides a new home for indigenous wildlife that have since returned to the renewed natural area."
The KEPZ has also a rooftop solar energy generation project through which 40-megawatt power would be generated, Mr Sadat cited.
"We've already a solar power generation capacity of 5.0MW. By this June, we produce 16MW and the total capacity will be installed after a couple of years."
