Shipping ministry senior secretary Mohammed Yousuf on Sunday said that foreign operators would be appointed in December to run New Mooring Container Terminal, Laldia Port and Pangaon Inland Container Terminal of the Chittagong Port.
The agreement on the New Mooring Container Terminal will be for 30 years, he said at a seminar titled 鈥業nvestment Potential in Ocean-Going Shipping Industry鈥� in the capital.聽聽
Economic Reporters Forum organised the seminar that was also attended by Bangladesh Ocean-Going Ship Owners鈥� Association president Azam J Chowdhury and Bangladesh Policy Research Institute chairman Zaidi Sattar.
The shipping secretary also said agreements on Laldia Port and Pangaon Inland Container Terminal would be for 25 years.
All the terminals are owned by the Chittagong Port Authority under the ministry of shipping.
Built 2007, the New Mooring Container Terminal is the most important and largest container terminal of the CPA and is now operated by Navy until December.
The Laldia Port is a container terminal of the CPA that is set to be developed with an investment of approximately $800 million.
Both the ports are located on the right bank of River Karnaphuli in Chattogram, about 16.6 kilometres from the shore of Bay of Bengal.
The Pangaon Inland Container Terminal is located on the Buriganga River in Dhaka.
Chittagong Port is responsible for sending and receiving 80 per cent of the country鈥檚 exports and imports, which accounted for over $110 billion in 2024.
The shipping secretary said they were supposed to hand over the operation of New Mooring Terminal to a foreign operator in the current month.
But unavoidable circumstances has delayed the process that was initiated following a decision by cabinet committee in a meeting on May 23, 2023, that an international operator would be appointed to run the New Mooring terminal under the Public-Private-Partnership initiative.聽
Since 2020, the United Arab Emirates-based Dubai Port World has been expressing interest to invest $1 billion in the construction and management of container terminals and container supply-chain infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the increased tariffs on 23 out of the 52 services at ports will come into effect on October 15 amid businesses鈥� opposition to the steep hikes in charges.
The shipping secretary said the hike in service charges had been made in line with recommendations by an international consultancy firm appointed in 2020 to provide recommendations regarding the operations of the Chittagomng Port.
The government received the consultant鈥檚 report six months ago, he added.
