Shipbuilding, renewable energy to be made new thrust sectors

Renewable energy and shipbuilding will be declared new 'thrust sectors' as the government unveils on Saturday the draft of its industrial policy for the next five years, officials said Thursday.

Industries ministry officials said the two hot sectors have been singled out for special government sops as the authorities are giving a final touch to the Industrial Policy 2009.

Shipbuilding has emerged as a major new export sector of the country, with potentials to create job opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people,' said a top industries ministry bureaucrat.

Renewable energy such as solar power is now lighting up thousands of Bangladesh villages. It is one of the fastest growing industrial sectors and is creating huge job opportunities in the rural areas, he said.

The 'thrust sector tag would make the two sectors eligible for special fiscal incentives, tax holiday, exemptions from double taxations and some cuts in customs and supplementary duties.

As many as 33 industries have been categorized as thrust sectors when the then four-party coalition government declared the last industrial policy in 2005.

Experts said many of these sectors including jewelry, luggage making, automobile light engineering and stationery items have failed to fulfill their expectations despite enjoying costly tax exemptions and fiscal benefits.

Officials said both shipbuilding and renewable energy have already proved their worth, as recent figures showed their bright future in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh joined the global ocean-going shipbuilding industry in 2007 when a local vessel maker received an export order from a European buyer. Since then local companies have won export orders of 45 ships worth over US$600 million.

Renewable energy has made big impact in rural areas in recent years as some 15 companies are now lighting up 290,000 off-grid households or about two million people.

Grameen Shakti has emerged as a major renewable energy company in the world, earning international awards and setting a target to sell solar systems to some one million households by 2012.

Talking to the FE, Industry Minister Dilip Barua said that the main objective of the new industrial policy is to make Bangladesh self-dependent in key sectors and help nurture private entrepreneurs.

He said raw materials of medicines, better known as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), would also be declared as a thrust sector and the government has already initiated move to build an API park on 200 acres of land at Munshiganj.

The minister said the coming policy will also give emphasis on labour intensive sectors to generate employment in line with the Awami League-led government's pledge to give job to at least one member of a family by 2021.

Industry ministry top official said plastic and automobile sectors would also be given special emphasis in the industrial policy. The government is already conducting studies on their potentials, he added.

In the forthcoming industrial policy, the government will announce allocation of land for exclusive industrial parks for plastics and automobiles as well as ready-made garments, he said

The top bureaucrat was speaking on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to talk to press.
 

Source: FE Financial Express