German Ambassador Visits Western Marine Shipyard, Bangladesh

The German Ambassador to Bangladesh, Dr. Albrecht Conze has visited Western Marine Shipyard Ltd. in Chittagong on 25 November 2012 to see the work progress & potentiality of the shipbuilding industry in Bangladesh.

During the visit he was accompanied by the German Honorary Consul in Chittagong Mr. Shakir Ispahani. This is his first visit to Chittagong as the Ambassador after taking charge as the new German Ambassador on August 2012.

Western Marine has developed a Primary Health Care Centre (PHCC) in their yard premises which has been established with the joint collaboration of German Development Cooperation (GIZ) &, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MOHFW). The Ambassador had also witnessed the smooth operation of the PHCC in the shipyard & admired the CSR activity of the yard as the PHCC is providing health service to 3,500 workforce of the shipyard & 30,000 people of the local community.

The Ambassador was highly impressed to see the shipbuilding activity in Western Marine. He emphasized on the industry saying that most of the exporters in Bangladesh mainly concentrate on consumer products; this means the foreign buyers will always have chances to fly to some other part of the world if they find the same product at a cheaper price in some other place. But shipbuilding is a heavy tech industry and it is persistent. Since Western Marine has proven their quality in the international market this emerging industry will remain steady in the long run & definitely they will have more business. He further said that Bangladesh is full of opportunities & the port city of Chittagong is geographically so much blessed that it could be used as a connecting hub all throughout the Asia.

The Chairman of the shipyard Mr. Saiful Islam highly appreciated this goodwill visit & hoped that the bilateral trade between Germany & Bangladesh will get even stronger from this visit.

Shipyard Managing Director Mr. Sakhawat Hossain stated that Western Marine has completed the highest worth shipbuilding project in Bangladesh by delivering eight 5200DWT MPC to a German buyer. Today these ships ply in the icy Baltic ocean in Europe. This has proven the quality of the shipyard & they expect more orders from the European market.

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Press Release, November 27, 2012