WB for more pvt sector involvement for improving port performance

The World Bank (WB) has suggested increased private sector involvement in improving performance of the ports in Bangladesh, sources said.
The WB suggestion came after the Ministry of Shipping (MoS) sought  its assistance for construction of the Karnaphuli container terminal by the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).
A team of WB officials, led by Nguyen-van Houtte, Senior Operations Officer, Trade and Transport Facilitation Department for South Asia Region, recently held a meeting with the officials of the MoS.
The WB team said increased participation of private sector will help raise performance of the ports.
They said presently in Chittagong Port, 13 moves take place per hour while the global standard is 25 moves per hour.
The team suggested privatisation of the port by phases through increasing private sector investment.
They also suggested operation of various port establishments through build-operate-and-transfer (BOT) basis.
The mission officials discussed the inter-linkages between productivity improvement at the port and timing needed for construction of a new terminal.
The MoS officials said the WB has been requested to support a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project at Chittagong Port.
"World-wide, former public service port authorities have turned to the Landlord Port Authority model for making dramatic improvements in port operations," a WB memo said.
"A large majority of sizeable ports in the Indian sub-continent have recently done so while many ports in Africa are in the process and most ports in the North and South America, Europe and East Asia already did so in the past," the memo further mentioned.
A senior MoS official said handling capacity of and preface of both seaports need to be raised. He said, in this regard more private sector involvement is required as many other global ports could improve their performance following the same.
The Chittagong seaport handles 92 per cent load of total export import activities of the country. The port handled 1.392 million TEUs (twenty feet equivalent units) of containers in 2011against 1.343 million TEUs of containers handled in 2010.
The Mongla port has the capacity to handle 6.5 million tonnes of goods and 50,000 TEUs of containers per year. The port has handled some 2.69 million tonnes of goods and 27 thousands TEUs of containers during 2010-11 fiscal year which are 42 per cent and 54 per cent of the port's capacity.