First 'Military Economic Zone' to be built scrapping Indian G2G project

The government has authorized the establishment of a dedicated Military Economic Zone within the National Special Economic Zone in Chattogram's Mirsarai. 

The executive chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun, confirmed the information following a high-level governing board meeting chaired by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus on Monday.

During a press briefing at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka, the BIDA chief highlighted that the shift toward defense production is driven by both economic opportunity and strategic necessity. 

"The Indian Economic Zone has been excluded from the government-to-government [G2G] framework, leaving the land vacant. The proposed Military Economic Zone will be developed on around 850 acres of land at the site," Ashik said.

The BIDA chief also said, "We have been discussing defence industrial production – military weapons or production for the military industry – for a long time. At this moment, there is clear global demand for it. Even from a purely economic point of view, defence is an industry where Bangladesh can begin participating and start its work."

He said that at the same time, they have observed that given the current global situation, having domestic arms manufacturing or certain captive capacities has become very important.

"Because when there is a supply shortage, if you do not have ammunition on the battlefield, you have no opportunity to fight. In many recent wars, it has been seen that the shortage is not in high-technology items. The shortage is in bullets. The shortage is in tank axles. We are considering whether we can play a role in those areas."

He added that the Armed Forces Division, BEZA, the Chief Adviser's Office, and the Ministry of Defence have been working on this issue together for quite some time.

"Today, we placed this proposal before BEZA's governing board, identifying around 850 acres of land in Mirsarai. A policy decision has been taken to include this in the master plan, which will now be designated as a defence industrial zone."

The BIDA executive chairman further said that the site is currently vacant. "It had previously been identified as an Indian economic zone, but that project has been cancelled. As the land was available, we will now use it as a military industrial zone, and it will be incorporated into BEZA's master plan."