Foreign cos shows interest to invest $1.58b in shipyard near Payra Port

Singapore and Australia-based Gentium Solutions and Netherlands-based Damen Shipyards Group have expressed interest to invest $1.58 billion in constructing a world-class shipyard near the Payra seaport in southern Bangladesh.

This will be the highest foreign direct investment in Bangladesh to date if approved.

Adviser to Gentium Solutions Md Kaikobad Hossain, Senior Director at Naval Projects under Damen Shipyards Group Eef van den Broek, and its Regional Sales Director Asia Pacific Rabien Bahadoer expressed the interest when they met Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun at his office in Dhaka on Monday.

They also handed over the “Feasibility Study for Developing a World Class Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Facility (WCSBF) in the Patuakhali District of Bangladesh” to the minister.

In a handout, the ministry said the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation for the feasibility study in 2020.

Industries Secretary Zakia Sultana, its Additional Secretary Faezul Amin, and Co-advisor to Gentium Solutions former additional secretary Dr Saidur Rahman Selim, its technical chief Brig Gen (retd) Arif Ahmed Chowdhury, among others, were also present.

During the meeting, the minister said Bangladesh was working to become a nation of shipbuilders from ship buyers. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced setting up a shipbuilding and ship repair industry in the Payra Port area in 2014.

“We will arrange land once the proposal is finalised,” he said.

Humayun said the government was ready to provide all sorts of assistance for setting up the shipbuilding industry there.

The representatives of the investors said a lot of workers are needed in the shipbuilding industry. The project will generate about 2,000 jobs in the first phase.