Bangladesh plans to build two more export processing zones (EPZ) in southeastern Chittagong as investors from both home and abroad are showing more interest in investing in this kind of zones, said a government official on Sunday.

The official with the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) said investors are showing more interest in these zones because they have ready-made infrastructure facilities.

The official added that they could not manage all the foreign investors in the current export processing zone at Adamjee, which also made the government to go for establishing more EPZs.

He said 180 industrial plots have been built in the Adamjee EPZ, of which, 130 have already be allotted.

"But more foreign investors are wanting plots in the zone," the official said.

He said one of the EPZs being planned in Chittagong will be set up at the Central Storage Depot and the authority is looking for suitable site for the second one.

The costs of investment in EPZs are far less than in other places, according to the official.

Bangladesh is enjoying duty-free access to many countries and the foreign investors investing Bangladesh are enjoying the same facilities in exporting goods to those countries, said the official.

Exports from Bangladeshi EPZs stood at 870 million U.S. dollars in the first half of the current fiscal (July 2005-June 2006).

Source: Xinhua