The Daily Independent, Internet Edition, Most Popular English Daily newspaper from bangladesh.

Sept. 8: A vested quarter is out to damage the flourishing shipbuilding industry of the country, one owner of a ship building firm complained today.
Shakhawat Hussain, Managing Director of the Western Marine Shipyard Limited, told The Independent that they had submitted a tender for building a tug boat for Karachi Seaport at a cost of Tk 30 crore. But a vested quarter of Bangladesh complained against them to the Pakistani firm questioning his company's credibility, he said, adding as such he had to procure a certificate from Shipping Ministry and sent it to the Pakistani firm as a supporting document to clear the confusion.
He alleged that the tender for the Tk 30 crore work was about to be cancelled had he not been able to quickly act and procured the certificate from the ministry. But he did not specify who made the complaint to the Pakistani firm or whether there was any professional or business rivalry involved.
The Western Marine Shipyard chief said that the industry picking up in Chittagong and Dhaka and receiving orders from foreign countries for building seagoing vessels in recent years. This is generating employment for thousands people from different background. Professionals from seven to eight disciplines like naval architecture, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and civil engineering can find jobs in the sector.
Sources said shipbuilding industry, if receive government support and patronization, can turn into a topmost foreign exchange earner and be a major source of employment generation in the country.
"This industry can alone contribute to more than 3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of the nation," they said, adding shipbuilding industry can earn more than Tk 25,000 crore annually.
A large number of shipbuilding industries have already been set up in the country under private sector. Of them, two industries have already attracted the attention of foreign buyers.
The Western Marine Shipyard Limited in Chittagong and the Ananda Shipyard limited in Dhaka had obtained several orders for building oceangoing vessels from the foreign companies. Accordingly, both the shipbuilding industries have already started the building ships in their shipyards and a few were already delivered or in process of delivery to foreign buyers.
He further said that the ship-owners of the world have now been turning to newly emerged potential countries like Bangladesh to order for building new ships because of lower costs and also because the developed countries who used to produce ships were turning to other to industries.

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