The shipbuilding industry is an emerging potential sector in Bangladesh. In the past, ships plying domestic routes were imported from abroad, but for several years, all the ships used in domestic routes and coastal areas have been built in the country. More so, Bangladesh is now exporting ships in abroad competing with some other large production countries like India, China, Vietnam, etc. We have now 20 shipyards and dockyards with global standard along with another 100 having a local standard in this sector.
Ship industries need huge investment and in our country these are run by the private sector. The Govt. is beside the private investors and keen to yield the best output by capitalizing the potentials of this sector. The Govt. has set a target to increase the export volume to 4 billion USD by 2025 through encouraging more investment and state of the art technology in this sector. This vision has been reflected in the ‘Shipbuilding Industry Development Policy-2021’. At present the export earning is around 1 billion USD. The policy also aims at building manpower of a total 100 thousand people in this sector.
In congruence with this policy, the Govt. has come up with financing program for this sector. Bangladesh Bank has built a refinancing fund of Tk. 2,000 crore for the development of the country’s shipbuilding industry. The fund has been set up under this policy Bangladesh Bank has issued a notification on May 2021 in this regard. This financing program loans will be available at a maximum interest rate of 4.5%. Besides, banks will be able to avail refinancing facility from Bangladesh Bank at 1% interest.
The shipyards having an international standard are currently producing a total of around 100 ships per annum. This ships produced here are of the maximum capacity of 10 thousand DWT (Deadweight Tonnage). Shipbuilding industry is very bright in both local market and international market. Ships are required to ply around 700 rivers running across the country. Besides we have a large coastal area, where ship is the main mode of transportation of products and goods, along with other commercial activities and trades.
On the other hand, the seas and ocean are still the main routes for export import business and ships are only vehicle used in these routes. At present there are around 400 billion USD shipbuilding market globally, which is soaring by 6 percent each year. So there is a huge potential of enhancing our shipbuilding industry both in quality and quantity. For achieving this, it requires huge investment, advanced technology and time.
The journey of shipbuilding industry started on 15 May, 2008 when Ananda Shipyard, a privately run shipbuilding industry exported a ship to Denmark. Since then the export volume has gradually increased. Bangladeshi ships are now exported to 40 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia continent.
While, shipping is a very crucial element of economic activities, shipbuilding industry has bearing on the ‘Blue Economy’. To maximize the benefits from the sea we need a strong shipping facility which can strongly supported by shipbuilding industry. Coastal and deep areas off shore the mainland are rich with diversified varieties of fishes. The fishermen use fishing boats and trawlers to catch fishes from sea. But these vehicles are not well equipped to ensure the highest yield. They cannot fish in deep sea areas due to lack of advanced fishing boats and trawlers. Estimations say we are only using 10 percent of the total sea areas for fishing. Fishermen use boats of maximum 300 tons to catch fish in deep sea, whereas, those in the developed countries use bots or ships of around 2000 tons. Bangladesh has now achieved the technical maturity to build to fishing ships of 2000 tons for developed countries, like Norway. Ships with higher capacity is essential to fish in the deep sea particularly in Exclusive Economic Zone and continental shelf in the Bay of Bengal.
Other than fishing ‘Blue Economy’ includes economic activities tourism, oil and gas mining, mining of mineral resources and extraction of other marine biological resources. Besides, research is an important sector that we need to focus on to maximize the economic benefits form sea areas belonging to Bangladesh. Having shipping vessels with the right capacity is prerequisite to include all these aspects in our economic activities.
It is so great that ship building industry is booming gradually under private sector. The Govt. of Bangladesh has come forward to foster this potential sector. Ministry of industries has taken a taken a time befitting initiative of formulating a policy for developing the ship building industry policy which considers providing financial support to this industry. This policy has been developed including opinions of the stakeholders. We hope the concerted efforts from both the public and the private stakeholders will take the ship building industry to an uplifted stage and contribute in building Bangladesh a developed nation by 2041. (PID Article)
A H M Masum Billah is a Senior Information Officer of Press Information Department
