"Shipbuilding Industry of Bangladesh in the Light of Global Trend"

Bangladesh is a maritime nation with a considerable area of sea, abundance with living and non-living resources. There are more than 700 rivers all around the country, with a total length of about 22155 kilometers, which occupy about 11% of total area of the country and flow about 1400 billion cubic meters of water annually. So rivers and water transports play a vital role for economical and commercial activities in Bangladesh. Sea is the only link of Bangladesh to the countries of the outside world with the exception of India and Myanmar. 90% of our total export and import travel by sea. In this contest, Bangladesh must have viable navy and considerable merchant shipping fleet to transportation of food grains, machinery, POL, etc. So, indigenous ship building industries are the acute requirement to support the naval and merchant shipping fleet both in peace and in crisis time. If we consider the maritime history of the nation, volume of sea borne commerce and size of inland waters, inland transportation of passenger and goods, cost-effectiveness and environment aspect of mode of transportation, shipbuilding industries should have progressed widely in Bangladesh.