Parliament: Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu on Sunday told Parliament that 35 percent of tanneries have so far been shifted to Savar Tannery Estate from the city's Hazaribagh area.

"Out of 154 tanneries that got plots at Savar Tannery Estate, 55 tanneries started the production of wet blue leather in Savar since May 31, 2017. Some more tanneries will begin their production soon," he said replying to a tabled starred question from Jatiya Party Nurul Islam Milon (Comilla-8).

The minister said the remaining tannery industrial units now continuing the construction works in the tannery estate and shifting machineries from Hazaribagh to Savar.

Though the relocation process causes temporary interruption in the country's leather production, it would help boost both production and export of leather and leather products finally, he said.

In reply to another starred question from Awami League MP Pinu Khan (Reserved Seat-23), the Industries Minister said there are over 8.68 lakh industries across the country as per the Economic Survey Report.

Of these, the number of cottage industries is 727,233, while that of small industries is 104,007, medium industries 2,991 and big industries 3,123, he said.

Answering to an unstarred (written) question from ruling party lawmaker Md Mamunur Rashid Kiron (Noakhali-3), the minister said the country's 15 state-owned sugar factories achieved only 51.56 percent of the total target of production in the outgoing fiscal of 2016-17.

Amu said the government has set a production target of 100,280 metric tons sugar for 15 factories in the upcoming fiscal of 2017-18.