Foreign company has left the country

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Bay Group established a joint venture with a Taiwanese company in the leather industry city of Savar. But after waiting for a long, the company has recently left Bangladesh due to the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) of the leather industry city having not being executed.

The name of the Taiwanese company is Techang Leather Products. They have factories in China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Bay informed that Techang is one of the largest leather suppliers worldwide. They received the 'Asian Tannery of the Year' award in 2011.

Shamsur Rahman, Chairman of the Bay Group said that Timberland and Clerks found out  the waste purification was not being done  properly when came to inspect the CETP of the leather industry city after Techang took the proceedings of those two foreign brands.
There is no salt purification system at all. Seeing this, they cancelled the proceedings. Techang then went away terminating the partnership agreement. They have invested Tk. 200 crore in the leather industry city, he added. There has been no production for the last two years. This year they did not buy any leather. They are paying Tk. 45 lakhs in wage of workers and employees every month doing nothing. The company is on the verge of being a loan defaulter now.

In 2003, Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) took the project of establishing a leather industry in Savar on 200 acres of land. Of the cost of the project, Tk. 1079 crore, Tk. 642.79 crore had been earmarked for constructing CETP and other wastewater treatment plants. BSCIC gave the proceedings of constructing CETP and dumping yards at a cost of Tk. 477 crores to the Chinese company Jinsu Lingzhi Environmental Protection Company on April 11, 2012. The deadline for the work was one and a half years. Seven years have passed, yet the construction of CETP is not fully complete.

Large entrepreneurs are saying that this CETP will not be recognized by the Leather Working Group (LWG). Without this recognition, global big buyers will not buy leather from Bangladesh. Bangladeshi companies working with the global big buyers cannot buy domestic leather now. Therefore, in the financial year of 2018-19, foreign leather of Tk. 945 crore has to be imported.

In this regard, Apex and Bay sought permission from the government for a separate ETP in November. They said that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved the issue. Later, they applied to BSCIC for a clearance, they did not give it. 

Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) acted as a barrier in this regard. They said that allowing the two tanneries for different ETPs will reduce the focus on CETP. The entire sector will be affected by this. There are opposing views also. The other party says that the CETP's wastewater purification capacity is 25 thousand cubic meters a day. However, during the monsoon season, the amount of waste goes up to 40 thousand cubic meters for which the streets are being messed up with waste overflowing the pipeline. As a result, increasing the capacity of CETP is a need. Investment due to government initiative would not have been needed if separate ETPs are allowed for Apex and Bay Tannery.

When asked, Dhaka University Department of Development Studies teacher Abu Yusuf said that Apex and Bay want to make separate ETPs even agreeing the condition of carrying the cost of CETP. In this case permission may be given. The capacity of CETP needs not to be increased for this.

However, Moshtaq Hasan, the Chairman of BSCIC said that the tanneries are using extra water to process the skin. The amount of waste is high because of this. A meter will be installed to prevent this.

Shamsur Rahman of the Bay Group said that 123 tanneries have been opened in the leather industry city. None of which is compliant or qualityful. If some tanneries were recognized by LWGs, supply of eco-friendly leathers could be found in the country. There would be at least 50 footwear export factories in the country.

The only LWG accredited (Gold) tannery in the country is Apex Footwear in Gazipur. It produces products for more than 135 global brands. Their export income was increased by 13 percent in the fiscal year of 2017-18; the amount was around Tk. 900 crore.

Abdul Majed, Executive Director of Apex Tannery said to the Prothom Alo, "If goods are sold to small anonymous buyers, the price will be lower. This is why the leather market is collapsing. ” “We said that we should be allowed to do ETP even we will bear the cost. Permission was not given. Now everyone is on the verge of being doomed. "

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