Meanwhile, the Korean company Youngone had acquired 2,500 acres of land at a cost of Taka 100 crore and developed it. Then the waiting began and with it uncertainties grew about the fate of the project. Rather put off by the procrastination, the Youngone group diverted more than $40 million it had earmarked for investment in the KEPZ to Vietnam, China and India. But even under those circumstances, foreign investors kept visiting the KEPZ site evincing an interest to invest.

The initial response from a KEPZ source to the government's green signal is positive: "When formally informed of the decision, we expect to bring in investors immediately and start export from the zone." The plans are to install 500 industrial units with an investment of $1 billion employing one lakh people directly and two lakh more indirectly.

The government needs now to extend all kinds of facilities to the KEPZ authority to help build its infrastructure so as to prepare the ground for the foreign investors to come in.

Withholding permission to the Youngone group for such a long time may have sent a negative signal to foreign investors willing to invest in Bangladesh. Better late than never; now that the operating licence is being given it should remove the clouds of misgiving, if any. Actually, we wonder why in 2003 when a committee headed by the principal secretary to the prime minister recommended that the KEPZ should be allowed to function 'in the interest of national image and foreign investment,' it was not given permission to do so. Let's not forget, we are in a race with time in garnering foreign investment for national development. Surely, we don't want to be thrown by the wayside.