Zero applications for SEZ a week before deadline
KATHMANDU, FEB 02 -
Not a single application has been filed to operate factories in the Bhairahawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with one week to go before the submission period closes.
On January 9, the Ministry of Industry (MoI) had called for expressions of interest (EoI) from prospective companies to set up manufacturing plants inside the SEZ with the deadline fixed for February 8.
“As of Friday, we have not received a single application,” said Saroj Kumar Vaidya, officiating executive director of the SEZ Development Committee.
“However, since there seems to be a tendency of filing applications at the last hour, we are hopeful about receiving applications this week.” Vaidya said that the reason behind there being no takers could be frequent problems in the committee’s website which permits companies to apply online.
Similarly, officials at the SEZ Development Committee said that they had received very few enquiries about establishing factories at the Bhairahawa SEZ, which is the first such zone in the country.
The administrative building of the Bhairahawa SEZ was inaugurated in November 2014, a full 11 years after construction was begun. There are three building blocks in the SEZ. The zone is spread over an area of 35 hectares and has been divided into 68 plots of 2,200 square metres each. The SEZ is expected to house more than 200 factories.
According to the MoI, more than 95 percent of the building work has been completed while infrastructure like petrol pumps and other facilities are in the final stages of construction.
The SEZ Development Committee has launched an advertising campaign after failing to attract the interest of the private sector. Apart from publishing public notices in the newspapers, the committee has placed a scrolling banner on television.
“We are leaving no stone unturned to attract companies to establish factories in the SEZ,” Vaidya said, adding that the committee could extend the application deadline if there were still no takers till then.
The request for EoIs published by the ministry says companies can establish 17 kinds of manufacturing industries like food and agro based products, readymade garment, leather goods and herbal products, among various others. The notice states that any company with a fixed capital of Rs 50 million can submit an EoI to set up a factory in the Bhairahawa SEZ.
Meanwhile, industrialists have expressed reservations about the SEZ as it is being readied for operation without a SEZ Act in place. The Bhairahawa SEZ is being operated under the Cabinet-okayed Bhairahawa SEZ Operation Standard and Procedure 2014 as the government’s repeated attempts to formulate a SEZ Act has been unsuccessful.
According to Vaidya, the committee has filed a SEZ ordinance at the Cabinet. “Yes, we don’t have a proper act in place; but we are waiting for the Cabinet to approve the ordinance. There is an operation manual for the SEZ,” Vaidya said, adding that since most of the things in the act will come from the operation manual and the ordinance, those planning to establish factories need not worry.
The government had envisioned the SEZ concept in 2000 in a bid to develop a competitive capacity of export oriented goods and services in the international market, attract foreign direct investment and widen the export trade.
The government has offered a number of financial privileges and facilities to companies establishing factories inside the SEZ. Though the land for the Bhairahawa SEZ had been acquired in 2000, the construction began only in 2003.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
