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A Joint Venture Agreement Signing Ceremony between Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority and Sumitomo Corporation of Japan for developing Bangladesh Special Economic Zone (Japanese Economic Zone) has been held at a city hotel today.

This Japanese Economic Zone will be established at Araihazar upazilla of Narayanganj on 1000 acres of land. This would be country’s first ever economic zone under G2G initiative. With this plan in view, acquisition of 500 acres of land has already been finished and the rest of the acquisition is on process.

The goal of the project is to expand the facilities of diversifying industries to produce various commodities, to create friendly environment for attracting Japanese and local investment and to reduce poverty and improve standard of life by generating employment for sustainable economic development.  Estimated cost of the project is 31.9581 billion Taka. In an addition, Taka 25.82 billion has been approved by ECNEC under FDIPP (Foreign Direct Investment Promotion Project) to establish this zone. The project consists of land development, construction of access road and erection of electricity and gas pipeline in the zone. Concerned officials hope that the economic zone will go in operation phase by 2022.

BEZA expressed its hope that the zone will attract 20 billion dollar worth foreign investment, most of which will be from Japan. BEZA envisages that this investment will play an important role in creating employment and also in transferring technologies to our country. The zone will consist of appropriate recycling plant to remove industrial wastes.

Mr. Md. Nojibur Rahman, Principal Secretary to honorable Prime Minister was present at the occasion as Chief Guest, and Mr. Md. Abul  Kalam Azad was present there as Guest of Honor. Besides, Mr. Takeshi Ito, Minister, Embassy of Japan, Mr. Yoshibumi Bito, senior Representative of JICA Bangladesh office and Mr. Yasushi Fukuda., Executive Officer, Sumitomo Corporation was also present there as special guests.

Mr. Md. Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury, General Manager, BEZA and Mr. Yasushi Fukuda, Executive Officer, Sumitomo Corporation signed the JVA on behalf of their entity.

Mr. Md. Nojibur Rahman congratulated BEZA for this achievement saying, a new chapter has begun through this JVA. He added the initiative under G2G is undoubtedly a praiseworthy step and said, Japan is the friendliest neighbor of our country and the bilateral tie between the countries is growing day by day. He said, this initiative will boost up confidence in investors and will augment the brand image of Bangladesh in improving investment climate. He added, this JVA will play a significant role on the eve of honorable Prime Minister’s visit to Japan.

Thanking BEZA and Sumitomo Corporation Mr. Md. Abul Kalam Azad said, Bangladesh is moving ahead and the pace of this growth is outstanding. He urged all to be a part of this development journey saying that improving the investment climate is one of the priority issues of current government. Many famous local and foreign investors are now showing immense interest in investing in the country due to many facilities provided by the government agencies.

Chair of the program Paban Chowdhury said, BEZA only believes in work, not in words and this JVA event is the perfect example of that. He congratulated all the stakeholders involved in this long yet very exciting process of tying a knot with a giant company like Sumitomo, who have a vast experience in developing Economic Zones around many parts of Asia. He also expressed his gratitude to JICA and Japanese Embassy for their untiring support and assistance in making this project a success.

Mr. Takeshi Ito said that Government of Japan is very happy to be able to work with BEZA.  He said a good number of Japanese Companies have shown immense interest in investing in Japanese Economic Zone.