South Korea
KEPZ textile zone can transform Bangladesh’s textile business: Youngone Chairman
Textile zone at the Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) in Chattogram will become a “textile hub” in Bangladesh bringing a lot of businesses if the required support is provided to "quickly and fully '' implement it, says the Youngone chief.
He said the five mega factories, if completed, will have a combined floor space of over 2,000,000 sft.
“Bangladesh needs to make a lot of efforts to produce and supply more manmade fibre (MMF) so that such a supply chain is established successfully here,” said South Korea-based global conglomerate Youngone Corporation Chairman and CEO Kihak Sung.
Also read: S Korea provides US$ 1 mn to IOM to support Rohingyas ...
He said such efforts will help Bangladesh get a lot of businesses, not losing everything to Vietnam. “That’s my challenge now.”
During an interaction at the KEPZ recently, Sung said they have a budget to invest another US$ 400 million of their investment. “As long as we’re competitive and customers can take our goods and they make a profit, then we can increase it (investment volume)."
Youngone already started manufacturing polyester fabrics at the two latest state-of-the-art polyester product factories with a floor space of over 430,000 for each which will be expanded to two more similar units for export and supply of high-quality products to garments and apparel factories in Bangladesh as an import substitute and backward linkage.
Read Textile backbone of Bangladesh’s industrial efforts: FM
“We want to be really supportive of Bangladesh garment factories. We need to make raw materials, garments and everything here,” Sung said, adding that quality energy supply still remains the main challenge.
He said they are applying for the generation of captive power in the KEPZ to meet "essential demand of quality" power supply for the sophisticated textile industries.
S Korea provides US$ 1 mn to IOM to support Rohingyas affected in recent fire
The government of South Korea has decided to provide emergency support of US$ 1 million to the International Organization of Migration (IOM) in order to support the humanitarian activities in response to the massive fire that broke out recently at the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.
According to international agencies, the fire that broke out on March 22 heavily damaged Camp 9, Camp 8E, and Camp 8W located in Kutupalong Balukhali area, Cox’s Bazar, with approximately 10,100 households destroyed and about 48,000 Rohingya refugees displaced.
Also read: $ 20mn required to respond to urgent needs after Rohingya camps fire: IOM
The Korean Government’s support will help international humanitarian agencies’ response and recovery activities benefit the most affected and rebuild the destroyed refugee shelters and living facilities, including LPG distribution, latrines, and bathing systems.
Since the outbreak of the Rohingya refugee crisis in 2017, the Republic of Korea has been providing annually four to five million US dollars for activities of international humanitarian agencies such as UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM, WFP, and IFRC for responding to the large scale international humanitarian crisis and supporting for Bangladesh host community.
Also read: Fire at Rohingya camp caused 'enormous devastation': UNICEF
The Embassy of the Republic of Korea said they will continue to make its best effort to address the humanitarian crisis and the ultimate repatriation of Rohingya refugees in close cooperation with the Bangladesh Government and the international community.
S Korea gives 95,000 Covid-19 rapid test kits to Bangladesh
South Korea has provided 95,000 Covid-19 rapid test kits to Bangladesh as part of its humanitarian assistance efforts.
The consignment from SD BIOSENSOR, a leading test kit manufacturer in South Korea, was officially received by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) recently, the South Korean Embassy in Dhaka said Sunday.
Also read:S Korea sees brighter ties with Bangladesh with multifarious success stories envoy
The kits, worth $800,000, were since distributed by DGHS to several test centres across the country, including Army Central Medical Hospital, Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Hospital, and Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
DGHS will use the remaining kits in due course.
In view of the latest surge in COVID-19 related deaths and newly confirmed cases in Bangladesh, the embassy said it hoped that the rapid test kits could help the health authorities successfully curb further aggravation of the situation.
Also read: Korea provides $ 1 mn to UNICEF to address humanitarian challenges in Bangladesh
In December 2020, South Korea provided $50 million as soft loan from its Economic Development Cooperation Fund to Bangladesh to financially support the urgent needs incurred by the pandemic.
South Korea will continue to stand by and support Bangladesh throughout the fight against COVID-19, said the embassy.
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