New industries yet to get gas, power connections
FE Report

The government has apparently failed to materialise its assurance of providing gas and power connections to a number of industrial units awaiting production as the investors requested the authorities to extend immediate energy support, industry insiders said.
Business leaders at a meeting with senior officials at the prime minister's office (PMO) Tuesday also asked the government to develop more skilled manpower for garments sector and easing procedures at the ports.

"Entrepreneurs demanded new gas connections in more than 100 newly set up industrial units which have completed all the formalities after getting registered with the Board of Investment (BOI), but government could not assure us of its support in specific term," said a big entrepreneur attending the meeting.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters' Association (BGMEA) president Abdus Salam Murshedy told the FE that new industries naturally expect gas and power connections when they are registered with the BOI.
"Government has imposed restriction on providing new gas connections to industries. In that case many of the existing business leaders will defaults on payment of bank loans, the BGMEA president expressed his fear.

He said their demand was to get assurance from the government that if it fails to provide new gas and power connections to these industries at least it would not declare these entrepreneurs 'loan defaulters'.

"Another demand was that the government can make some allocations from its training fund to develop skilled manpower in our existing garments manufacturing units which is at least 30 per cent of the total manufacturing units," Mr Salam told the FE.

This public-private partnership (PPP) to train people can generate employment of 0.8 to 1.0 million people for garments sector which we now cannot exploit for lack of skilled manpower.

He said the government must ensure logistics and infrastructure to sustain the long-term growth in garments export which is now enjoying a 36 per cent growth.

Chaired by the PM's principal secretary, Abdul Karim, the meeting was also attended by commerce secretary Ghulam Hussain, energy secretary Abul Kalam Azad, labour secretary Nurul Huq, shipping secretary Abdul Mannan Howlader, Chittagong port chairman Commodore RU Ahmed, officials of Petrobangla and Titas, FBCCI president Abul Kalam Azad, BTMA president Zahangir Alamin, BKMEA 2nd vice-president Mr Hatem, among others.The meeting also discussed the unrest in the garments sector, overall import-export situation, the bottleneck at the port and new power-gas connections to industries.