CHITTAGONG, Aug 9: Swedish Ambassador to
Bangladesh Zohan Frishel said the ship-breaking industry is turning into a
potential sector in Bangladesh, beating all odds.
He said this while visiting the PHP Ship
Breaking and Recycling Yard at Sitakunda of Chittagong Monday. Managing
director of the PHP Shipyard Zahirul Islam Rinku welcomed him at the yard, a
statement said.
Remarkable changes have been made in the
Bangladesh Ship Breaking Yards after fighting off all odds and negative
publicity by some of the western countries, he said, adding, the yards are
using all modern security equipment and as a result accidents in the yards have
come down.
He expressed satisfaction at seeing improved
environmental situation in the yard and suggested reforms in other yards taking
the PHP Ship Breaking Yard as a model. "Such work will remove negative
image of Bangladesh ship breaking yards abroad," he said.
Mr Rinku said some steps have been taken to
improve environmental atmosphere in the ship breaking yards in recent times as
many countries including Norway have come forward to supporting the initiative.
Representatives of different countries have
visited the ship breaking yards. The visit of the Swedish Ambassador is part of
that, he said. "We hope all negative notions about Bangladesh ship
breaking yards will be removed after seeing the working environment here."
The statement said that around 10 million
tonnes of steel are scrapped every year from the ship breaking yards throughout
the country and Bangladesh, India and Pakistan import 75 per cent of them.
Ships weighing dead weight around 2.5 to 3.0
million tonnes are imported alone in Bangladesh. The annual turnover of the
industry is around Tk 50 billion and the industry gives annual revenues worth
Tk 10 billion to the government exchequer.
Later, the Ambassador made a courtesy call on
the Mayor of Chittagong City Corporation AJM Nasir Uddin. The mayor apprised
the ambassador of the ongoing door-to-door waste management programme.
The Ambassador praised the move of the mayor
in city's waste collection and said it is a time befitting step of the mayor.
In his country, the government collects 99 per cent of the total domestic waste,
he said.
Source: the
financial express. 9 August 2016
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