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Three nations to begin coastal shipping in Oct

Diplomatic Correspondent
Bangladesh, India and Myanmar are expected to begin coastal shipping from October.
The issue is likely to be prominent during the 8th Bangladesh and Myanmar Foreign Office Consultation in Dhaka on Sunday and the third Bangladesh-India Joint Consultative Commission meeting in New Delhi on September 20, diplomatic sources said.
They said the work on coastal shipping line between Bangladesh and Myanmar was at the final stage.
Deputy Foreign Minister of Myanmar Thant Kyaw along with a seven-member delegation arrived in Dhaka on Thursday night to attend the meeting with his Bangladesh counterpart Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque.
Officials said Dhaka was ready to offer Myanmar vessels the use of Bangladesh's inland ports.
The countries have marked Chittagong, Mongla, Narayanganj and Teknaf ports in Bangladesh and Yangon, Pathein, Sittwe and Maungtaw ports in Myanmar for use by each other's vessels.
Bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Myanmar stands at $ 100 million a year and both the countries hope to increase it to $500 million.
Bangladesh and India have also decided to launch coastal shipping by the end of this year and trial runs were likely in October.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali would go to India on September 19 and have the ministerial talks the following day.
Diplomatic sources said Shipping Corporation of India might start running container ships between India and Myanmar in October as well.
India would be connected with its east and south-east areas such as Visakhapatnam, Paradip of Orissa and Haldia of West Bengal, while Bangladeshi coastal vessels may be used commercially for transporting cargoes to and from India through Chittagong and Mongla ports.
They said the two countries have settled the issues of insurance for ships and the standards of the ships.
India and Bangladesh have agreed to buy insurance policies up to $10 million each.
Sadharan Bima Corporation of Bangladesh and General Insurance Corporation of India would be the insurers in their countries.
According to officials, coastal shipping would benefit Bangladesh immensely as the country imported nearly $5 billion worth of goods from India in fiscal year 2013-14.
Many of these goods were brought to Chittagong or Mongla port via a third port such as Singapore or Colombo, which raises freight costs and consumes time.
The cost would be a third with direct coastal vessels, sources said.