Five Zones, Not a Hundred: Bangladesh Rethinks Its Industrial Land Strategy
Bangladesh's government has shifted from announcing 100 economic zones to concentrating on completing five — a reform that favours investors who need working infrastructure now.
By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 5-minute read
For years, Bangladesh's economic zone programme was described in a single ambitious number: 100 zones. It was a headline figure that appeared in speeches, investment brochures and international coverage.
The government has now signalled a different approach. Reporting by bdnews24.com indicates the interim administration will work on five economic zones rather than a hundred.
Read casually, that sounds like retreat. Read properly, it is one of the more useful decisions available to Bangladesh's investment climate.
What Was Wrong With a Hundred
An economic zone is not land with a designation. To be usable by a manufacturer it needs reliable electricity at industrial voltage, water supply and effluent treatment, road access capable of carrying container traffic, gas or alternative process energy, customs facilities, and worker accommodation nearby.
Every one of those is expensive, and each has to be delivered before a single factory can operate. Spread across a hundred sites, a finite infrastructure budget produces a hundred partially-built zones — none of them ready for a tenant who needs to begin production next year.
Concentrated on five, the same budget can complete them.
Why Investors Should Welcome It
A foreign manufacturer choosing a location does not care how many zones a country has announced. They care about a narrow set of questions: can I get power on this date, can my containers reach a port, is the effluent plant operating, and can I begin production on schedule?
A short list of completed zones answers those questions. A long list of gazetted ones does not.
The zones already furthest along are precisely the ones this shift protects — the vast National Special Economic Zone at Mirsarai, and the Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone now under construction with committed anchor capital.
The Evidence That Focus Works
The BEPZA zone at Mirsarai is the clearest demonstration. As of mid-July 2026 it had attracted roughly $130 million in investment before its development project was even complete, generated $52.82 million in exports, and employed 5,074 people. Sixty-three local and foreign companies had signed lease agreements, with proposed investment of $1.49 billion.
Those are results from a zone that received sustained attention. They are the argument for concentrating resources rather than dispersing them.
The Political Difficulty
This kind of reform is harder than it looks, because zones are distributed across constituencies and every district would prefer to host one. Reducing the programme means telling most places they are not getting one soon — a straightforwardly unpopular message.
That it is being pursued anyway is the part worth noting. Choosing five deliverable zones over a hundred announced ones is the kind of unglamorous decision that shows up years later in the form of factories that actually opened.
Related reading
- Barisal: The Region the Padma Bridge Opened, Still Empty
- 800 Acres, $1.3 Billion: The Chinese Economic Zone in Chattogram
- 33,000 Acres: Inside Bangladesh's Largest Industrial Zone
- BEPZA Zones Hit $8.41 Billion — 17.5% of All Bangladesh Exports
Sources
- "Interim government to work on 5 economic zones, not 100," bdnews24.com — bdnews24.com
- "Bepza Economic Zone in Mirsarai draws nearly $130m before completion, eyes $2.9b potential," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net
