The Ethiopian government recently provided 100 hectares of land to an apparel manufacturer for the construction of a large $150m garment factory.
Our government should be emulating this type of approach to facilitate the construction of more modern factories.
It is well known that the Bangladeshi government owns or controls significant amounts of idle or unproductively used land. Many state bodies and state controlled enterprises occupy large amounts of under-utilised lands in Dhaka, Chittagong, and near the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
The opportunity costs of failing to productively use this land are huge. There is great demand for land in our business sector and potential investors. Our government should actively consider leasing or selling more of these lands to the garment and textile industries.
These lands can then be developed into much-needed RMG parks and industrial zones. This will help factories to cost-effectively relocate from unsafe multi-storey buildings and to attract new investment.
Such efforts need to be backed up by improved infrastructure and communications to make it easier for factories to relocate. The demand and potential already exists. What is needed is a more pro-active approach by the government.
With many competitor nations undertaking considerable efforts to attract investment, the government cannot afford to allow land it controls to be left idle or in the hands of unproductive enterprises.
It should speed up initiatives to make more productive use of state controlled land for the benefit of the economy.
