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Port springs to life

Foreign feeder vessels withdraw strike following announcement to amend flag rule

RAFIQ HASAN
The crippling strike over container cargo shipment at the Chittagong Port ended yesterday afternoon with the foreign feeder vessel operators thrown into a frenzy of activities to meet the shippers' deadline.
The shipping ministry in an announcement yesterday said the government has decided to amend the Bangladesh Flag Vessel (Protection) Ordinance 1982, exempting foreign container services from obtaining waiver certificate before loading and unloading cargo at Bangladesh ports.
A bill in this regard would be placed in the next session of the parliament.
The ordinance said all foreign flag vessels would have to obtain waiver certificate for loading and unloading goods at Bangladesh ports.
They would be allowed to load and unload goods only when there was no Bangladesh flag vessel at the ports, it said.
Local representatives of Main Line Operators and Singapore-
based Chittagong Feeder Trade Committee (CFTC), which stopped operation on May 31, held a meeting yesterday afternoon and decided to resume operation immediately.
"All the foreign feeder vessel operators and MLO representatives agreed to resume operation from now on," said Jamaluddin Quader Chowdhury, managing director of QC Container Line Limited, and a member of the CFTC.
"We are convinced that the ordinance would be amended very soon," he said.
Three foreign feeder vessels loaded cargo last night.
Over 1,000 containers with various exportables like garments and frozen foods were stuck up at the Chittagong Port due to suspension of operation by the foreign feeder vessel operators.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Bangladesh Ocean Going Ship Owners' Association (BOGSOA) Sayeed Hossain Chowdhury has expressed disappointment over the government decision to amend the ordinance.
He said, "The day the government will change the ordinance will be marked as a black day for the nation." The shipping business will then go under full control of a few foreign companies, he added.
Sayeed pointed out that in the past, foreign feeder vessel operators had been charging higher freight and imposing congestion and bunker surcharge on Bangladesh-bound cargo on flimsy grounds.
The association has been demanding full implementation of the ordinance for, what it said, growth of local shipping business. He blamed the shipping ministry for its 'failure' to implement the ordinance.
In November 2001, the government had granted a general waiver to all foreign vessel operators, triggering a legal battle between the local and foreign vessel operators.
The HRC, a member of the ship owners' association, had filed a case with the High Court against the general waiver and got a verdict in its favour. But its victory in legal battle would bear no significance as the government is changing the relevant law, sources pointed out.