Commerce Minister Faruk Khan yesterday stressed the need for setting up an environmentally friendly ship breaking industry in the coastal belt.
“Environment is a global issue now. A balance has to be maintained between environment and development. We have to set up environment-friendly ship breaking yards,” he said.
He was speaking at a view-exchange meeting with leaders of Bangladesh Re-rolling Millers Association (BRMA) and Bangladesh Steel Mills Association (BSMA) at the secretariat.
BRMA Chairman Mohammad Ali, Senior Vice-Chairman Mizanur Rahman Bablu, General Secretary Abu Bakar Siddique, BSMA Chairman Sheikh Fazlur Rahman, Senior Vice-Chairman M Abdus Salam and Seneral Secretary Dr Bashir Ullah also attended the meeting.
Faruk said Ministry of Environment is preparing a ship breaking policy, which when announced, will leave no problems for the Ship Breakers Association in importing scrapped ships.
He said the government has already sought cooperation from the Netherlands
The delegation urged the government to take necessary steps to resolve the existing problems of the re-rolling industry to keep MS rod (iron) prices stable.
They informed that over 400 re-rolling factories are located across the country, meeting the country's demand for MS rod.
They said 80 percent of the raw materials in the re-rolling mills come from ship-breaking yards, with approximately 3.5 million metric tonnes needed per year.
Source: The Daily Star, Unb, Dhaka , Tuesday, January 18, 2011
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