Bright Prospects of Shipbuilding Industry of Bangladesh

The shipbuilding industry in Bangladesh has experienced substantial growth over the past couple of years. The industry is gradually improving with time. With the good performance of the industry, the governments should play a more vital role and help the industry to boost further. The government should take and implement preventive policies, incentives and support the local shipbuilders.In a bid to help the local shipbuilders, the government should disallow the second-hand shop imports. This would give more room and a bigger market for the local shipbuilders. Another measure that the government can take is to reduce the cost of fund. The current fund cost for the Bangladeshi shipbuilders is 18 percent, which in China is only 7 percent. Lowering the costs of fund will help reduce the costs for these local firms in the shipbuilding industry and become more competitive with the overseas shipbuilders.The shipbuilding industry stands on four pillars, namely:  quality, timely delivery, joint ventre and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The leading shipbuilder in Bangladesh is Western Marine Shipyard Ltd. The shipbuilder started its operations as a small entity back in 2000. It was started by a group of marine professionals who felt and foresaw that the industry has prospects and potentials in Bangladesh, similar to that of Korea, China and Japan. The shipbuilding industry in Korea, China and Japan has gradually grown and expanded and became the backbone for its economy.Western Marine Shipyard Ltd. started with only 200 employees. Over the years the shipbuilder made substantial progress and has grown, and is currently the workplace of 3500 people. The company's turnover for the 2011-12 fiscal year was BDT. 370 crore, and the company generated a profit of BDT. 40 crore.Rivers in Bangladesh currently face improper flow problems due to siltation; and to address this problem, the government recently took river dredging projects. For the purpose of dredging rivers, dredging vessels are needed, which the government has decided to build in Bangladesh.The shipbuilding industry's future in Bangladesh looks bright with quite high demands from the domestic market itself, coupled with growing demands from the international market.


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