BD used to be a shipbuilding powerhouse.
If that industry can be raised back to old time highs, that alone will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, if not millions. Bringing in altleast 100 billion dollar in exports alone from this sector by 2040.
Shipbuilding is a cyclical industry just like real estate, dependent on the vagaries of economic ups and downs, and the demand of ships generated by older ships being put to pasture (most of them in our country around Patenga, Chittagong).
The other factors generating demand for new ships are expansion of int'l trade, which was slowed by Covid, but is picking back up again.
Bangladesh is in a special situation, in that we don't build ships above 10,000 DWT - limited by the size of local yards. That is the domain of inland container and bulk carriers, or coasters going from one country to another via coastal routes.
That said, the engg. and research capabilities found locally will take a back seat to no country, even some EU ones. Larger Bangladeshi yards are as automated and CAD/CAM equipped design/mfg. wise as most Eastern European yards, and are probably better in that area, in addition to having low labor costs (much lower than any semi-industrialized nation). They can turn out vessels as fast as any yard globally.
To compete with the big yards like in Korea and China in building medium sized (30,000 DWT) and medium to large sized (50-70,000 DWT) ships, you need hundreds of Billions in investments in new yard handling equipment and also generous financing from banks which is a pre-requisite. There have been large bank defaults in that sector in Bangladesh with some shady yard operators, who have also sullied our good name as a sourcing country. I know who they are.
Note here that I am not even talking about competing with the largest South Korean (ex: Hyundai) and Chinese shipbuilding yards, who routinely build Supertankers and Super-Panamax container carriers in the 100,000+ DWT range.
Bangladesh shipbuilding industry lacks clear direction as our shipping minister is just happy enjoying the flow of graft and do not feel the need to travel overseas (namely - South Korea) to benchmark their govt. policies and operations (or even have their underlings do so). Setting up clear bank financing policies and guarantees are a definite prerequisite to have a resilient industrial sector.
These burbak gadhas will not even think about setting up a plan to turn Chittagong Patenga coast into a shipbuilding hub, when all the ingredients are right there and times-a-wastin'. You can hire all kinds of consultants and shipbuilding companies like DAMEN - who have already been to Bangladesh many times. There is no concerted plan - I mean a "plan" does not even need a lot of money or cash outlay.
Talking about which - the planned cooperation with Turkish and Chinese yards to bring in ToT and build vessel subassemblies is also not going anywhere.
The people we have at the helm of govt. leadership in Bangladesh as shipping minister and his team could not even serve as ardalis when it comes to being knowledgeable about the industry. Very sad.
In this respect our IT minister Palak has done far better, though we bad mouth him all the time. He is actually actively working with the likes of Infosys, TCS and other companies to get offshoring of IT to Bangladesh.
