Bangladesh is a maritime nation with 9,000 sq.km of territorial waters, 720 km long coastline. At present 10,000 inland and coastal ships and 36 foreign going ships are plying all over the country, which carries more than 90% of total oil product, 70% of cargo and 35% of passengers. More than 150,000 skilled and semi-skilled workers are employed in this labor-intensive sector. Although Bangladesh was traditionally known for export of jute, tea and readymade garments, in the last 10 years it has attracted attention of many foreign buyers in shipbuilding. Two million people are related directly or indirectly with the shipbuilding industry. Shipbuilding is a growing industry in Bangladesh with great potentials. Bangladesh has a long history in shipbuilding dating back to the early modern era. However, shipbuilding has become a major promising industry in recent years when the locally made ships began to be exported. Recently shipbuilding has become an important economic and industrial sector in Bangladesh. The potentials of shipbuilding in Bangladesh have made the country to be compared with countries like China, Japan and South Korea. Japan introduced shipbuilding in the 1950s and 1960s to rebuild its industrial structure. In the 1970s South Korea initiated shipbuilding through development as strategic industry. China is now in the process of repeating these models. Similarly South Asian countries like Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Indonesia are showing their efficiency in shipbuilding and gradually securing more orders from the international market. Referring to the growing amount of export deals secured by the shipbuilding companies as well as the less expensive labor available in the country, experts suggest that Bangladesh could emerge as a major competitor in the global market of small to medium capacity ocean-going vessels. In recent times, the shipbuilding industry has become a significant source of foreign currency income as Bangladeshi yards are exporting quality ships to various countries. There are more than 100 shipyards in the country engaged in traditional and domestic shipbuilding, but international standard shipyards capable in building class ships for foreign buyers have also emerged. There are more than 10 shipyards engaged in building ships of international quality. Among them following are few to name: Western Marine Shipyard, Ananda Shipyard, High Speed, FMC Shipyard, Western Fishers Shipyard, Narayanganj Engineering, Khan Brothers, Karnaphuli Shipyard, Meghna Shipyard, Radiant Shipyard, Three Angle, etc. Recently Bangladesh has successfully exported following oceangoing ships and thus the industry has brought revenue of $200m in foreign currency since 2007: 4 X Passenger boats to Mozambique 2 X 2900 DWT Ice-class Multi Purpose vessels to Stella shipping, Denmark 1 X 1 Floating Reception Vessel to LAMOR Corp. AB, Finland 8 X 5200 DWT Ice-class Multi Purpose vessels to Grona Shipping, Germany. 2 X Passenger Carriers to Karachi Port Trust, Pakistan. 1 X RORO ferry to Hundested Roervig Faergefart, Denmark 1 X Passenger Ferry to TEMESA, Tanzania 1 X 3800 DWT Ice-class Multi Purpose vessels to Ecuadorian Navy Company, Ecuador 1 X Car Ferry for Uganda National Roads Authority, Uganda 1 X Intl. SOLAS Passenger Ship for New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade At present the following export projects are in progress, which is to be delivered over a period of next one year: 10 X 8100 DWT Mini bulk carrier for JSW, India 1 X Offshore Patrol Vessel for Dept. of Fisheries, Kenya. 1 X 15m Tug for Gambia Groundnut Corp, Gambia 10 X self-propelled barges for Gambia 1 X Landing Craft for UAE based owner Presently the industry is working on foreign projects worth of $250 million. The leading shipyards are expecting to grab more foreign orders for growing numbers of global ship demand in the coming days. It may be mentioned here that Japan, South Korea and China are building very big, specialized and hi-tech ships, and they are not interested in constructing smaller vessels. Globally, this small- and medium-sized ship market is worth around $200bn. If Bangladesh can get 1% of this market, then it amounts to $2bn. Bangladesh shipbuilding is flourishing and the future of shipbuilding is brightening day by day. But the country's infrastructure needs to be improved to attract orders for new ships. Due to the nature of the heavy-tech engineering works, the capital investments are high in this industry. At the same time to compete at a global level with countries such as China, Korea, India where capital investments are subsidized by the government, prices to ship owners needs to be very competitive in order to attract ship owners to place orders at Bangladeshi yards. Although the country has some well renowned shipyards, due to the global financial crisis and the extremely high rates of interest, it is becoming very difficult to sustain the burden of large capital investment and remain competitive at the same time. Therefore, to support this massive industry, there should be provision of long-term credit facility with single digit interest with moratorium period of at least 12 years. This will ensure the development of the industry from which the economy will benefit following the huge mass employment, export diversification and backward linkages and many more. In addition, investment is needed in research and development to take the industry to the next level to build bigger ocean
