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Cabinet decides on flag rule today

Local ship owners resent move

STAR REPORT
The cabinet would decide the fate of the Bangladesh Flag (protection) Ordinance (1982) today amidst continued protests by the local ship owners, according to sources.
The proposal contains claims, which the local ship owners dismiss as "misrepresentation of facts".
The proposal made for the cabinet meeting claimed that the ordinance ensuring at least 40 per cent of cargoes to national flag carrier vessels was outdated and not consistent with the present day world economic situation.
The ordinance should be cancelled as the nature of shipping business has
changed significantly over the last 20 years, the shipping ministry proposal said.
It also suggested formation of a committee comprising local oceangoing ship owners to prepare a policy guideline for the local shipping sector.
It claimed that the existing temporary rule of sharing cargoes with 60 per cent going to the foreign vessels and 40 per cent to locals is very difficult to implement.
An inter-ministerial meeting on April 13 chaired by Principal Secretary to the prime minister Dr Kamaluddin Siddiqui discussed the issue and favoured cancellation of the rule.
The proposal mentions that the
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top chamber bodies including the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association in separate letters urged the government to scrap the ordinance immediately.
The commerce minister also gave his opinion in favour of cancellation of the ordinance, the proposal said, adding that it was promulgated in the interest of the state-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC).
But sources said the government move to cancel the ordinance followed pressure from the Singapore-based Chittagong Feeder Trade Committee (CFTC) -- the main platform of foreign feeder vessels.
The CFTC is ruled by Chairman of the QC container Limited and Parliamentary Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury.
Protesting the government's move, local ship owners said it would ruin the shipping sector. The foreign shipping companies have been doing monopoly business in Bangladesh and became desperate to cancel the ordinance as the local shipping sector started to flourish of late, they said.
They said such protective laws exist in at least 58 countries, some of them highly developed and pioneers of free economy.
The cancellation would also establish dominance and control of the foreign ship owners over the local shipping business.
The local ship owners claimed that some agents of foreign shipping companies were spreading misleading information and were engaged in propaganda campaign against them.
They also claimed to have the full capacity of container carrying from Bangladesh ports to deep sea port hubs where the mother vessels anchor. Currently, 13 local oceangoing container ships can carry around 15,720 twenty equivalent units (TEUS) in a month
against the requirement of 14,238 TUES.
The local ships can also reach the hub as quickly as the foreign flag vessels, they said. The local ships are also providing quality service and would develop tremendously if the ordinance is enforced properly, they claimed.