Chittagong, 22 October 2012: International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB) Chittagong Chapter & BGEMEA Chittagong Region had arranged a seminar and discussion on “Traffic Congestion and its Solution by River Transpiration” in the port city on 21st Oct 2012.
Mr. Jon Danilowicz the Charge-de-Affairs of US Embassy in Bangladesh was the Chief Guest in the seminar and the event was moderated by the Chairperson of IBFB Chittagong Chapter Mr. Sakhawat Hossain and the Managing Director of German classification society “Germanischer Lloyd Bangladesh” A K M Masud Karim presented a brief keynote paper on this subject. Amongst others business personnel, industrialists & investors from various sectors were present in the seminar.
The key note speaker highlighted about the growing traffic density in our highways and major cities. He had presented statistics in the event showing Chittagong port has received approximately 15 lac TEUs of containers last year which is growing at a rate of 20% per annum. All these containers are being shifted to various destinations in the country by road which is the major cause for bad traffic in our highways.
This is could only be overcome if we transfer this overload from the highways to the river channels by transporting the containers by container ships. The government has already taken initiatives to improvise this major issue by developing Pangaon Inland Container Terminal and by issuing 32 container ship licenses. But this capacity to be enhanced as more ships will be required to increased trades in the coming years.
The IBFB Chittagong Chapter Chairperson Mr. Hossain emphasized saying people of this country loose 25% of their working life stuck in bad traffic. If this problem is resolved people could be more efficient and add more value to the country.
The Chief Guest Mr. Danilowicz said that Bangladesh is full of potentials but definitely there are challenges. He highly admired IBFB and BGMEA for organizing such seminar as challenges could be met upon discussion.
The founder President and former Mayor of Chittagong Mr. Mahamudul Islam Chowdhury mentioned IBFB is a body which has fought against corruption in various sectors. It has highly contributed in the economy and he is hopeful that IBFB will be able to draw a conclusion to this issue as well .The first Vice President of BGMEA Mr. Nasir Uddin concluded the seminar by thanking all for participating in the seminar.
