BD Lepachu Limited, a wholly US-owned company, has signed an agreement to invest $5 million in the Ishwardi Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Pabna. The company is setting up a factory there to make wigs (educational hair mannequin heads). To that end, the two sides signed a land lease agreement on Sunday at BEPZA Complex, the Dhaka office of the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA).
According to a BEPZA press release, the company will produce 100,000 wigs a year (Original Series, Cap Series, Premium Series and Slip-on Series). Designed especially for international cosmetology academies and salons, the products will be supplied to world-famous beauty brands such as L’Oreal, Wella, Kao and Henkel. The company is expected to earn about $7 million a year in exports and create jobs for 300 people, 295 of them Bangladeshis.
The authority sees the investment as another milestone in BEPZA’s continuing effort to diversify Bangladesh’s export basket by attracting investment in non-traditional and value-added products beyond the established ready-made garment sector.
BEPZA Member (Engineering) Abdullah Al Mamun and BD Lepachu general manager He Zhi Long signed the agreement on behalf of their organisations. BEPZA Executive Chairman Major General Mohammad Moazzem Hossain, Executive Director (Security) Lt Col Md Mohsin Hasan, Executive Director (Enterprise Services) Mosihuddin Bin Mesbah and Executive Director (Public Relations) ASM Anwar Parvez were present, along with senior officials of both organisations.
Ishwardi EPZ currently has 27 industrial units in operation and eight more under implementation. Goods worth a total of $2.3717 billion have been exported from the zone so far, and actual investment stands at about $290 million. The EPZ has so far provided jobs for 20,928 Bangladeshi nationals.
Four companies in Ishwardi EPZ already make caps, wigs and cosmetics, strengthening the zone’s position as an emerging centre for diversified manufacturing beyond ready-made garments.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report