Chittagong, 15 December, 2011: Western Marine, the country’s leading shipyard, laid four keels weighing 350 dwt (dead weight tonnage) each to build tankers for Nurjahan Group.
Representatives from Nurjahan Group and Germanischer Lloyd Bangladesh, and 13 honorary consuls of Bangladesh from 12 different part of the world were present during the keel-laying.
The consuls is paying goodwill visit to have a firsthand knowledge of Bangladeshi shipbuilding industry and its opportunity in the international arena. Contract for building the tankers was signed between Nurjahan Group and the shipyard on July 18, 2011. The four oil tankers with capacity of 1350 dwt each will be used by the Group to ferry edible oil within the country.
The consuls were highly impressed to observe the significant advancement of the industry after visiting Western Marine yard. The thirteen consuls were Kazim Ozer from Istanbul, Turkey; Mrs. Zerrin Cakmakoglu from Izmir, Turkey; Ataur Rahman from Auckland, New Zealand; Mrs. Peggy Kalaydjian from Cyprus; Stéfan S. Gudjonsson from Reykjavic, Iceland; Peter Daae from Oslo, Norway; Tuomas Mantysaari & Harry Blässar from Helsinki, Finland; Patrick Swolfs from in Antwerp, Belgium; Amine Laraqui from Casablanca, Morocco; David Kim from Incheon, S. Korea; Christian Pelo from Genova, Italy; Dasho Rinchen Dorji from Phuentsholing, Bhutan.
Saiful Islam, Chairman of the Western Marine, said that Western Marine-built-tankers are of highest standard and 100% class approved. “Today, we need not to import tankers from abroad anymore by spending our hard earned foreign currency. So, we can save millions of foreign currency to bolster our forex reserve,” he added.
Sakhawat Hossain, MD of the Western Marine, conveyed a message to the consuls saying that Bangladesh could be branded as a shipbuilding nations now. “We are building quality sea going ships for European shipowners, which proves our quality,”. He also said, “I hope all the consul generals will go back to their country with a positive impression about our nation and they will deliver this message to their country.”
