One of the possible avenues for diversifying the economy of Bangladesh is the maritime sector. It is a small country with a big coastline in the south. It is through the sea that we will find this new avenue of our economic success. The range of activities that fall within the domain of maritime world can be noted have as follows: ship owning and operation; ship management; ship chartering; sea freight; shipbuilding; ship financing and mortgage; ship breaking; transshipment of goods; offshore activities; and dispute resolution/arbitration and litigation.
Bangladeshis are gifted with 8,533 km of inland waterways and 535 km seacoast. This very gift has allowed industries to transport goods to various divisions of Bangladesh and around the globe. The transportation is handled by cargo ships/vessels transporting different types of goods ranging from food items to oil. They are of four types; general cargo vessels, tankers, dry vessels, and multi-purpose vessels.
The capacities of these vessels range from 20,000 deadweight tons to 550,000 deadweight tons. Inland ports handle is seen to handle nearly 40% of the nation’s foreign trade. There is no other business as international in nature as shipping. Government control and restrictions impede the growth of shipping. There are different types of chartering. Bareboat or demise charter involves taking over the ship (on long lease usually leading to sale) as a virtual owner to manage and operate the ship (including employment of master and crew) for its own business. The bareboat charterer may also register the ship in a flag of his/her choice but cannot raise any capital through mortgage because this information remains tied-up with the original register.
There are a lot of Bangladeshis who want to engage in ship chartering business but cannot do so because of exchange control restrictions. Bangladesh should remove all bureaucratic restrictions and allow its nationals to freely undertake ship chartering business. Such chartering enterprises will not remain confined to national trade but will involve third countries as well.
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