The decision was taken at a meeting between a six-member Japanese delegation and Textiles and Jute Minister Shajahan Siraj at his office yesterday.

Japanese delegates Masaki Shibata, Ok Jong Doo, Han Yuhee, Lee Kwon Hyuk, Yoshito Igarashi and Mohamad Selim, Textiles and Jute Secretary M Abdur Rashid Sarkar and other high officials were present.

The minister and the delegation members will visit Bogra and Rangpur on Saturday to select the factory sites and see for themselves the quantum of the raw materials in the areas.

The Japanese investors have showed their interest in establishing such industrial units here because of "availability of bamboo as raw material and low labour cost".

They said they will set up more such factories in Bangladesh if their initial investment proved successful. The production will be exported and used as raw material in Bangladesh's garment industry.

The minister thanked the foreign investors and said, "The Bangladesh government will provide all possible support for establishing the industry."

He expressed the hope with the setting up of such enterprise, Bangladesh would earn huge foreign currencies and the unemployment problem would be mitigated.