DHAKA (AFP) — Bangladesh said Tuesday that investment in export zones nearly tripled in the first four months of the financial year to 380 million dollars from a year ago despite political upheaval and slower growth.
"It's a great time for us. Investors are rushing in, but we don't have any plots left in the main export processing zones," said Bangladesh Export Zones Authority (BEPZA) chief Brigadier general Ashraf Abdullah Yussuf.
To meet growing demand, the authority plans to develop three more export processing zones by the end of the financial year ending June 2008 to house hundreds of new factories, he said.
Bangladesh has eight export processing zones (EPZs), where 266 factories are now in operation. The zones offer 10-year tax holidays, utility benefits and security.
In the financial year ended on June 30, 2007, factories in the zones have exported goods worth 2.06 billion dollars, which is 17 percent of the country's total exports.
The rise in shipments from the economic zones came despite a slowdown in economic growth and emergency rule which has been in force since January.
In October, the central bank said growth would slow to 6.5 percent, down from an earlier finance ministry estimate of seven percent after a slide in exports, floods and widespread uncertainty.
The country's main trade body said the military-backed interim government's crackdown on corruption has created a climate of fear resulting in a sharp drop in investment by local entrepreneurs.
The government launched the crackdown in February and has so far detained more than 150 top political and business figures including two former prime ministers.
The export authority chief said the rush of foreign investors was largely because of the abundance of cheap labour in the impoverished country and security in the export processing zones.
"Our labour is the cheapest in the region and we have plenty of it. In addition, the investors are impressed with the security in the EPZs," Yussuf said.
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