Commerce ministry to launch $40m fund under EC4J project

The Ministry of Commerce will launch a new $40 million fund on Wednesday under the Export Competitiveness for Jobs (EC4J) project for infrastructure investments to create around 90,000 fresh jobs and boost exports.

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi will remain present as chief guest at the launching ceremony of the fund through a virtual platform while Commerce Secretary Md Jafar Uddin, representatives from the World Bank, and business leaders from the concerned sectors will join the virtual launching.

The announcement came from a knowledge sharing workshop on “Public Investment Facility for Infrastructure Constraints (PIFIC),” held at the Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) Auditorium in the capital on Tuesday.

EC4J Project Director and Commerce Ministry Additional Secretary Md Obaidul Azam spoke at the workshop as the chief guest.

Highlighting the main project objectives and the possible outcomes of this fund, Azam said they are targeting to turn some 250 local firms representing the leather and leather goods, footwear, plastics and light engineering sectors into international standard ones.

Besides, he hoped that once the project is implemented, around 90,000 fresh jobs would be generated directly from these four sectors.

Answering a question, the EC4J project director said these four sectors were selected based on a study conducted by the Word Bank as these have high potential.

Apart from this, he informed that work is on to frame a separate similar kind of investment project to incorporate the jute and agro processing sectors to further explore their potential.

He also hoped that through implementation of this project, the export volume in the four targeted sectors would increase significantly.

The commerce ministry additional secretary also informed that a $8 million fund would be formed under the project as part of Covid-19 protection measures.

Beyond these four sectors, Azam revealed that those who would manufacture medical equipment and masks for facing the Covid-19 pandemic would get grants from this fund.

As the project period progresses, PIFIC now seeks funding proposals for infrastructure investments in these four sectors. PIFIC is a significant component of the EC4J project.

PIFIC has approximately $40 million available in grants and technical assistance, which is expected to cover 15-20 infrastructure projects within industrial clusters around the country.