The Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT) between Bangladesh and India offers enormous opportunity for faster growth of bilateral trade which remained almost untapped, experts said.
They stressed joint dredging of the drying-up river channels, if needed with donor support, to make it possible to harness the trade and commerce prospects.
Speaking at a seminar on 'Bangladesh-India Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade: Challenges and Opportunities', the policy and economic experts highlighted the urgency of taking immediate measures to remove the obstacles in the way of development of the waterways between the two countries.
They urged both the governments to take measures to remove the problems of navigability, customs procedures and lack of infrastructural facilities while loading and unloading goods, develop ports and resolve policy constraints.
Identifying the constraints, Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pankaj Saran, who attended the programme as the special guest, said continuing dredging to maintain navigability requires huge resources.
"India will be happy if Bangladesh jointly offers World Bank to fund the large dredging activities to make the routes navigable," said Mr Pankaj.
To make the inland waterways more effective, Prime Minister's Economic Adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman also stressed the need for developing a multimodal transport system.
He said the system did not develop as there had been no policy support over the years and no investment in this regard-even not in railways.
"There are immense potentials for cooperation between the two countries, if we can remove the barriers, both infrastructural, trade and non-trade barriers, including customs and tariff," said the adviser.
He told the meet that both the countries identified many of the obstacles. "Now we need mutual cooperation to overcome the obstacles."
Regarding transit fee, the adviser said all the bilateral issues should be settled through mutual cooperation.
Stressing the need for a concrete policy framework, Mr Pankaj said renewal of the validity of PIWTT for the next five years will open up an opportunity of cooperation.
The coastal shipping agreement is also a significant move, said the envoy.
The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and the Indian High Commission in Dhaka jointly organised the seminar in the MCCI conference room.
The seminar was attended by a large number of participants that included businessmen, entrepreneurs, economists, traders and representatives from various government and non-government organisations.
Earlier in his welcome address, MCCI President Syed Nasim Manzur said the inland waterways have been playing an important role in the transport system of the sub-continent since ancient times. However, in recent times, the importance of this mode of transport declined considerably with the expansion of road and rail transports.
"Although the water protocol allows transshipment, it does not include detailed procedures for operationalising transshipment and movement of trucks, neither does the protocol include guidelines with regard to fixation of fees and charges for using the facilities at the ports for purpose of transshipment," said the MCCI president.
"Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) need to be framed appropriately to operationalise the protocol in view of the future need," Mr Nasim added.
The function was also addressed, among others, by former Commerce Secretary Sohel Ahmed Chowdhury, former MCCI president Laila Kabir, Western Marine Shipyard Ltd Chairman Md. Saiful Islam, Mutual Trust Bank Limited Managing Director and CEO Anis A Khan and MCCI members Kamran T. Rahman and Habibullah N Karim.
BIWTA former secretary Syed Monowar Hussain and Shipwrits Resources Ltd Managing Director Mahboob Ahmed presented two keynote papers.
The writers pointed out the long history of inland waterways between the two countries, their contribution to trade and commerce and challenges and opportunities.
According to Mahboob Ahmed, dredging and river management are key to increasing navigability.
He said the WB has decided to put in US$1.0 billion for dredging 24 priority rivers in the first phase under a project called 'Revival of navigability in IWT system in Bangladesh'.
Other problems, according to the former BIWTA secretary, include absence of container services between Kolkata and Dhaka and Narayanganj, poor knowledge and lack of confidence of market forces of IWT.
Prohibition on certain goods in unloading at DB ports of call and lack of navigation between Dhulian in India and Rajshahi in Bangladesh were also cited.
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