Whither deep sea port project?

The Bay of Bengal is one of the greatest gifts of nature to Bangladesh. Land-locked countries only know how important and strategic it could have been for their economies. Such countries now face limitless difficulties in carrying out their sea-borne trade.

As Bangladesh has quite successfully resolved its maritime boundary issue with Myanmar, one of the two stumbling blocks to better exploitation of the resources and locational advantages of the Bay of Bengal, has been removed. Now the country is eagerly waiting for an international court's decision on its maritime dispute with India. Such a decision, to be announced shortly, will pave the way for Bangladesh to fully concentrate on ways and means to exploit to its great advantage the huge potentials of the Bay.

As setting up of a deep sea port is not at all linked to what the international court has to say on its dispute with India, Bangladesh should not lose any more time in going ahead with the project. Such a deep sea port will have immense positive effects on employment generation and the country's revenue earnings.

The positive effects of good seaports and harbours on a country's current account balance as well as its overall balance of payments cannot be denied. The cluster of activities in sea ports all over the world clearly show that ports have significant economic impact both locally, regionally and nationally.

The economic history of maritime powers such as Britain, Spain and Portugal clearly documents the significant and critical role which ports have played in the development of their economies.

Singapore is what it is today due to the fact that it has a deep sea port. Ports have enabled Japan to build export processing zones that have turned the country into an exporter of goods which cannot be produced on the basis of the country's factor endowment profile. Sea ports are an economic infrastructure with significant multiplier effects on the domestic economy. For Bangladesh, a deep sea port in Sonadia will support the country's growing sea-borne trade needs of the future, allow it to go along with the global shipping trend of moving towards larger tonnage; and to utilise our geographical advantage to become a regional access door to the sea.

The existing sea ports in Chittagong and Mongla are not capable of handling bigger vessels against the backdrop of growing incoming and outgoing containers worth more than US$ 55 billion annually.

The construction of the proposed Sonadia deep-sea port was conceived in 2006 to reduce the burden on Chittagong, the country's major port, whose capacity has fallen behind demand. Given steady economic growth of the country, Chittagong is unable to handle the traffic; so the country needs an alternative seaport.

On the other hand, Bangladesh also needs a big new port if it wants to become a major economic hub providing sea access to China's Yunnan Province, India's land-locked seven north-eastern states, Nepal and Bhutan. Overseas trading activities by these areas that are now greatly hampered owing to their distance from the sea, will also benefit Bangladesh economically.

Just before Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to China, the officials of the ministry of foreign affairs in Dhaka hinted that Bangladesh might sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China for building the proposed deep sea port. But it did not happen. Later, the State Minister of Foreign Affairs told newsmen that the decision was put off for a better deal for Bangladesh. But then more the country waits, the more it loses in terms of gains. There must be a firm decision on construction of the deep sea port.

Politically, it might be assumed that the India factor might have restrained Bangladesh from coming to a deal with China on the deep sea port but Dhaka can avoid the fallout from a Beijing-Delhi tussle by opting for a consortium of companies from different countries of the world, experts say.

The Bay of Bengal has already emerged as an important geo-political location between China and India. But then New Delhi did not mind when China invested US$ 500 million to open the Colombo International Container Terminal in Sri Lanka in August 2013 and helped build a new US$ 450-million deep-sea port at the southern Lankan city of Hambantota in 2012. Also last year, China took control of Pakistan's Gwadar Port. The Chinese progress on the world's busiest international shipping lane has worried India.

It is quite understandable that the government of Bangladesh may prefer a consortium for the country's geo-political location for maximising benefits from the port. A consortium-based financing is more feasible to achieve the target, said experts. Even a government-appointed committee in its recommendation said the construction work of the proposed deep sea port should not be given to any single country.

Bangladesh should not lose any more time in choosing a single country or a consortium of companies from different countries to build a deep sea port. Such a decision should come quickly from the highest political leadership in the greater interest of the country. It must not be held up like our failure to exploit our huge coal reserve.

When the government chalks out a rosy future of Bangladesh by setting the targets like Vision 2021 or achieving the status of a middle-income country or a fully developed country by 2050, indecision on large projects like that of a deep sea port will only lead the people to think that all these are mere eye-wash. Projects like the Padma multi-purpose bridge, four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong highway and deep-sea port at Sonadia are very much important for translating such development dreams into a reality.

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