Capacity Building for a Promotional Campaign for EPZs – Emphasis on Mongla, Ishwardi and Uttara EPZ’s

Project:	Capacity Building for a Promotional Campaign for EPZs – Emphasis on Mongla, Ishwardi and Uttara EPZ’s
Completion Date:	2008
Client:	Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund (BICF)
Services Provided:	Analysis, Capacity Building, Investment Promotion, Training.

Project Description

The Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (BEPZA) was successful in attracting over $1.434 million of investment since its foundation, resulting in the creation of 218,000 jobs from companies originating from 33 countries. Dhaka and Chittagong are the favoured locations and attract the vast majority of the companies. The EPZ’s located in the rural areas of Mongla, Ishwardi and Uttara, have experienced much slower growth and performance. This had understandably led to questions of “why?” and “what needs to be done to address this.” The first part of the assignment included visits and meetings with staff and current investors in the three zones, analysis and assessment as to why the zones had not been as successful and to identify any unique selling points or other factors that might help with their international marketing as locations for FDI in the future.

The second part of the assignment was built on the findings and recommendations that were established from carrying out the first part of the assignment. This specifically focused on the development of a promotional campaign for the underperforming zones. This assignment also included on the job capacity building and was completed in co-operation with Board Of Investment (BOI) and BEPZA staff from the Investment Promotion Division.