Thousands of Bangladeshi villagers benefit from Chinese shoemaker
DHAKA (Xinhua) — Thousands of households in the Gazipur District on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka have become better off after a Chinese-invested shoemaking factory opened there in 2012.
Panda Shoes Industries Ltd. has not only brought investment and development opportunities to the Gazipur District, but also provided jobs at villagers’ doorsteps.
Moreover, its shoe production has laid a special focus on the local market. That means it makes shoes for the Bangladeshi people to wear.
The factory now has the production capacity to make millions of pairs of shoes with a variety of designs. It employs people mostly from Gazipur, which has turned into a growth center from an isolated rural hinterland thanks to the shoemaking factory.
The Chinese business people have also built infrastructure facilities in the area, in addition to the shoe factory. This has contributed immensely to the transformation of local landscape, for example in the Mazukhan village.
The factory now has the production capacity to make millions of pairs of shoes.
Mosammat Mina Akhter, who has worked for about four years in the Panda factory located in the Mazukhan village, said the local residents now enjoy many kinds of facilities that have emerged after the opening of the factory.
“Since we are locals here, we have seen that before I took the job, we did not have any kind of infrastructure like paved roads and shops,” she said.
Opening of the factory has helped develop this entire area, she added.
Besides locals, she said there are also people from different districts of the South Asian country working in the factory.