The
government is going to establish a special economic zone for tannery industries
in the Bangabandhu Economic Zone of Mirsarai, Chattogram. For this tannery
village around three hundred acres of land has been selected.
According
to the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), it was
decided to add two more tannery village after Savar to increase the production
and capacity of the leather industry of the country. One of them will be in Rajshahi
and the other will be in Chittagong. For this purpose, Ernest Money will be
credited to the Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA) in November.
While
interacting with the leaders of the chambers at the Chittagong Circuit House, the
Executive Chairman of BEZA, Mr. Pawan Chowdhury said that as a commercial city
there is no leather or tannery village in Chittagong region. For this purpose,
it is important to take long-term initiatives for the development of this
industry concerned for the interest of the economy and the country. On that
meeting he assured that special economic zone would be set up in the Mirsarai
Economic Zone for the production of leather goods in order to revive and
mobilize the potential tannery industry of Bangladesh.
The
government of Bangladesh is establishing 100 economic zones with one-stop
service facilities across the country. Of these, more than 30 are in
Chittagong. Chittagong will be able to achieve its desired form as a commercial
capital if all the projects adopted for infrastructure development are
implemented in the region. Every year around 30 to 40 percent of leather
collects from the Chittagong region but the tannery industry is under par in
the area. Therefore, a specific industrial area for this industry and its
associated industries will accelerate this sector which will be boosting the
economy of the country.
There were
total 22 Tannery industries in Kalurghat industrial area, Chattogram was
established. Before the independence, in Kalurghat industrial area, only
sixteen tannery factories were established. After the independence there were five
or six more added. But now only two of the factory is running. Medina Tannery
and Riff Leather are now active but recently Medina Tannery has been shut down
due to lack of ETP. Tannery factories that shut down due to some leakage and
facilities in Chatogram area are: Hilton (HRC), Zaman Rahman, Orient, Monty,
Seiko Leather, Karnaphuli, Jubilee Tannery, Asia, Metropolitan, Chittagong
Tannery and more.
The
industry has collapsed due to lack of facilities in Chittagong area. In the
Bayazid Bostami and Kalurghat, tannery industry was once a gathering.
Inadequacy in bank credit facilities, environmental pollution, lack of seasonal
leather supplies, market problems and export problems are the major causes of
this industry's distress. However, in the greater Chittagong region the amount
of animal leather collection is increasing every year.
In 1991 the
TK Group established the last tannery factory in Chittagong named Riff Leather.
At present Riff Leather is the only leather factory in Chittagong located in
Kalurghat industrial area. This factory buys almost 5-7 percent of the raw leather.
The remaining leather has to be sold to the tannery owners of Dhaka, some goes
to trafficker’s hand.
Relevant
business persons in this field said that it has become difficult to survive in
this sector because of the lack of advanced technology used, modernization in
the tanneries of Chittagong and product marketing in the international market.
In order to protect the leather industry, government can arrange to provide bank
loans at low interest rates for the tannery owners.
The owners,
business persons of the industry welcomed the initiative to build a tannery
village in Mirsarai. They say that in order to sustain the leather industry,
there is a need to build an environmentally friendly tannery pavilion. They
also said that higher tariffs on import of leather and leather products must be
reduced and to ease the bureaucratic complexity.
On
Wednesday (October 30) at the inauguration of the ‘3rd Bangladesh Leather
Footwear and Leather Goods International Sourcing Show-2019’ in Dhaka the Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina announced a financial incentive for the next five years
to achieve the desired export earnings from the leather goods and footwear
industry.
The Prime
Minister said that equal opportunities and policy support would be ensured for
all the export sectors of the country. Discriminatory barriers will be removed.
The government is emphasizing economic diplomacy to connect importers of
leather and footwear with exporters around the world. As a result, the leather
goods and footwear industry has become the second largest export earning sector
in the last decade. Now the income from this sector has taken place after ready-made
garments.
She also
said that in the last financial year, about $ 1.2 billion earnings was
generated from the leather sector. If we can export our entire collected raw
leathers by making finished product, we will be able to easily export $ 5
billion from this sector by 2022. She invited all foreign buyers and investors
to invest in various industries of the country, especially in the leather and
leather products industry.
The Prime
Minister said at the occasion, the footwear and leather goods factories have
expanded with encouragement and policy support during the last two periods of
her government and there has been huge incentive for the investment. Now about 83%
of the sector's export revenue comes from footwear and leather goods.
The
government is implementing the Export Competitiveness for Jobs project under
the Ministry of Commerce for the development of four priority sectors to
achieve export diversification goals. The leather, leather goods and footwear
industries are of them.
The Prime
Minister expressed optimism that all those involved in the leather and footwear
industry will come forward to achieve the goal of developing a middle-income
Bangladesh by 2021 and a developed country by 2041.
Thanks,
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