Exploiting shipbuilding potentials

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The foreign shipping companies take away, on average, more than two billion US dollars a year as freight charges from Bangladesh's 16 billion dollar foreign trade. The entire two billion dollars could be saved and retained in the country by developing local shipping business and industry. According to a UN convention, a country's flag vessels should earn at least 40 per cent of its freight charge, i.e. at present 960 million dollars in case of Bangladesh. But the average annual income of Bangladeshi shipowners is about only $40 million.
Though shipping always remained a thrust area in government polices, the declarations, as it seems, were not backed by action needed for the growth of shipping or shipbuilding.
The dockyards in Khulna, Narayanganj and Chittagong have, for long, been manufacturing and maintaining big river crafts and ships plying on the coastal votes. The dockyards recently began making ships for the high seas.
A local shipbuilding company received orders to build a number of ships for one of the European Union (EU) countries. More EU countries could be expected to place orders with Bangladeshi companies to manufacture and supply ships to them. Considering the competitive production costs, shipmakers in Bangladesh are in a position to compete in the competitive global shipbuilding industry .
A future brighter than the garment industry awaits the Bangladesh shipbuilding industry.
Such a development would facilitate the expansion of the local shipping business and contribute to self reliance in shipping and create a large number of sustainable jobs even by linkage industries, besides other potential benefits.
A special fund could be created for entrepreneurs in the shipping business so that they can borrow from it on easy terms. This can help promote self-reliance in shipping sector in the short term. The existing shipping companies of the country are of the opinion that they can expand their operations provided they get tax rebates and limited protection in some routes.
Abu Noor
DOHS, Dhaka