Govt now wants both public and pvt funds to build deep-sea port

Syful Islam Bangladesh is now expecting funding by both public and private sectors for construction of a deep sea-port at Sonadia in Cox's Bazar district, official sources said. A recent meeting at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) reviewed the responses that Bangladesh had received from foreign governments after seeking formal proposals from them to fund the deep-seaport construction. The meeting observed that only a very few governments responded to Bangladesh's call, made in mid-March last, to formally submit funding proposals in this connection. It found that most of the interested countries offered suggestions for involving their respective private sector in funding the project from their respective side which were not in conformity with Bangladesh's proposal for construction of the port on government-to-government (G-to-G) basis. Sources said Denmark has proposed that Maersk Line, a top global container service provider, can invest in deep-sea port construction on behalf of the country. Besides, many other interested countries have forwarded the names of some of their private sector companies to fund the construction works of the project. The meeting decided that funding proposals from foreign governments and their private sectors will be accepted. After reviewing the proposals, the committee will decide who will be engaged for the work. Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in mid-March lest sought formal proposals from countries like India, China the United States of America, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany for the proposed port. The MoFA sought proposals from the countries within one month, following a meeting of a high-profile 10-member committee, headed by the Principal Secretary to the PMO. The committee was formed in February last to examine proposals submitted by the UAE and other interested countries and development partners for the construction of the proposed port. Before this, various countries expressed interest formally and informally to invest in the proposed port. Three Chinese companies --- China Merchants Holdings International Company Ltd (CMHI), China CAMC Eng Co Ltd, and China Harbour engineering Ltd -- expressed their interest to get themselves involved in building the deep-sea port. The Chinese government, however, nominated the CMHI for any works relating to the construction of the proposed deep-sea port. A cabinet committee earlier decided that the port would be constructed on G-to-G basis by involving more than one country for making investment in its construction. Officials said Bangladesh's ports have become very important for South Asian regional connectivity. A number of countries, according to such sources, are interested to make investment in the project in expectation of earning reasonable and quick rates of return on their invetment. They said the country's two sea ports - Chittagong and Mongla - are likely to see a substantial rise in container handling, once neighbouring India is granted transit and transshipment for carrying cargoes to its 'Seven Sister'-states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Alongside India, other countries like Nepal and Bhutan are also interested to enjoy the similar facilities for facilitating their external trade. Shipping Secretary Syed Monjurul Islam in a meeting at the PMO said presently container-laden vessels with only 1,100 TEUs (twenty feet equivalent units) can enter Chittagong port and those having the capacity up to 450 TEUs can enter Mongla port area. On the other hand, ships having capacity for 7,000 TEUs and 8,000 TEUs can enter Indian and Sri Lankan port areas. Once the deep-sea port in Sonadia is constructed, ships up to a capacity of 4,000 TEUs each, will be able to enter that port. "The construction of a deep-sea port has become very necessary to sustain increased import-export activities of the country through letting big-sized ships anchor near the ports," he said. In 2006, Japanese firm PCI first conducted a feasibility study for construction of the proposed deep seaport. The seaport at its first stage will have five international-standard jetties with an annual capacity for handling 704.01 million tonnes of containers. The cost was then estimated at Tk 600 billion.