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While most average towns in the countryside slowly wake up to brace the day, the small port town of Mongla in Bangladesh’s southwest region is already bustling with activity by 6:00am each morning.
The narrow roads buzz with the blaring of horns and whirring of electric three-wheelers that are boarded by passengers from all over town and nearby villages.
However, these vehicles are almost always heading towards the Mongla municipal boat terminal, where ferries that carry people across Mongla River are docked.
“It just becomes a big crowd of people of mainly women at the terminal from 6:30am onward,” said Mohsin Alam Bhuiyan, an official of Mongla municipality that collects tolls from people crossing the river.
Those who cross the river early in the morning mostly work at factories inside the Mongla Export Processing Zone (EPZ). “The pressure of workers remains high until 7:00am as they want to join work on time. Later, the crowd reduces and movement becomes slow until the evening, when workers start returning home,” he added.
Bhuiyan went on to say that the number of workers at the EPZ increased over the last two or three years.
This is a relatively new development for the Mongla EPZ, which has registered increased turnout of workers in recent times after remaining quiet for years since beginning operations in 2001.
The EPZ was launched with the aim to generate jobs in the south-western part of Bangladesh by attracting investors and exporting products abroad.
During the initial years, a large part of the industrial enclave remained unused and soon became overrun by wild trees and bushes.
Investors were uninterested in the EPZ at first for the absence of a gas connection and proper road infrastructure even though it is located less than a kilometre away from the main jetty of Mongla Port, the country’s second largest seaport.
However, construction of the Padma Bridge and increased port activities attracted several investors to establish facilities at the EPZ, which offers land and other services at comparatively cheaper prices than major EPZs in Dhaka and Chattogram.
Today, 32 factories employing 8,165 workers are operating in the Mongla EPZ, which is one of eight operational EPZs under the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (Bepza).
Just 10 factories were operational at the EPZ in fiscal 2010-11, creating jobs for 523 workers. Now, the construction of eight other industries are under implementation, according to officials of the industrial enclave.
Beginning with a betel nut processing factory, various products such as garment and garment accessories, bags, jute products, agro products, electronics, wigs, marble columns, tiles and basins are now made in the export-oriented industrial enclave.
In fiscal 2019-20, cumulative exports of the Monlga EPZ was worth $718 million, up by about 870 per cent from $74 million in fiscal 2010-11.
At the end of December 2021, cumulative investment in the industrial enclave was $97 million while it was just $5.14 million ten-and-a-half years ago.
The EPZ’s authority, which is 210 kilometres from Dhaka via Mawa, has already allotted 178 plots to investors out of the 192 available. The authority has also acquired 62 more plots to meet the growing demand.
Mahbub Ahmed Siddiq, executive director of the Mongla EPZ, said investors have been showing increased interests to invest in the industrial zone for the last three or four years.
One major reason behind the growing demand is the addition of new facilities at Mongla Port, where the increasing arrival of ships in recent years has provided impetus to investors.
Besides, the improvement of transport communication for the construction of Padma Bridge and railways connecting Mongla Port with Khulna has given confidence to investors, he added.
As a result of the increased investment, a large number of people who live in the vicinity of Mongla Port have got jobs.
“One of the biggest advantages at the EPZ is that it is less than half a kilometre from the main jetty of Mongla Port,” said Jahangir Alam, production manager of Kotobuki Bangladesh Ltd, which makes car seat heaters at the industrial zone.
“There is also available space for expansion while tariff is lower here compared to the EPZs in Dhaka and Chattogram,” said the official of Kotobuki, which supplies its products to automobile makers such as Nissan and Mitsubishi.
The working environment at Mongla EPZ is quite good as well.
“Workers who are mainly from the local community are gentle and disciplined,” said Md Mizanur Rahman Khan, head of human resource at VIP Industries Bangladesh Pvt Ltd, the largest employer and investor of Mongla EPZ. VIP, which began its journey in 2014, has seven operational factories out of its 11 available to make luggage bags for export mainly to India and the Middle East.
Badrunnesa Mili, a resident of Mongla town, said the increased work opportunities provided a big cushion to a large number of families during the pandemic-induced economic slowdown.
Noor Alam, president of the Mongla Nagorik Samaj, a civil society platform, echoed the same.
“Most workers employed in the EPZ are women and the jobs have economically empowered them. Living standards of their families has improved,” he said.
Mongla EPZ Executive Director Siddiq said a section of workers would be able to join work easily after the rail line connecting Mongla Port with Khulna becomes operational.
He hoped that investment in the EPZ will continue to grow unless another round of Covid-19 hits the world. In addition, another 2,000 more job opportunities will be created soon.
(TDS)
