Thailand has expressed establishing direct commercial maritime shipping communication with Bangladesh.
Such expression of interest comes after signing the coastal shipping communication treaty with India under transit and transhipment agreement.
Official sources said that Bangladesh has decided, in principle, to sign a similar treaty with Thailand.
Sources also said that such coastal shipping communication treaty would also be signed with other far-eastern countries located on the vicinity of the Bay of Bengal. In this regard, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is expected to be signed once Thailand fixes a date.
Secretary for Shipping Ministry, Md Abdus Samad told Bangladesh Post, “We are now working on the draft proposal of the coastal ship communication treaty with Thailand. Once Thailand gives the final nod, the MoU would be signed.”
“Once the treaty is implemented, commercial ship communication would be established between Chattogram Sea Port and Ranong Port of Thailand via any port in Myanmar,” he added.
Sources said that the first proposal came from Thailand in favour of coastal shipping. They have been holding talks for several years to establish direct maritime relations with Bangladesh.
Thailand also emphasized on the importance of establishing direct maritime relations between the two countries at a bilateral Joint Trade Commission meeting held on January 8. Earlier, representatives of the country visited the port of Chattogram. Now Bangladesh is equally interested in establishing direct coastal shipping links.
This interest has led to the possibility of establishing closer links in the import-export trade with Myanmar and China, by activating the Eastern Maritime Route with Thailand, which the government policymakers deem favourable for trade interests.
Officials at the Ministry of Shipping said that the import and export of goods with Thailand currently pass through Singapore port and take two weeks, a time period that would be cut to six days with direct shipping links, according to a Thai transport official.
With the proposed agreement, it is possible to reduce the time and money spent on transport of goods to half if the direct shipping operations between the two countries begin. However, officials said there may be some problems.
They said the deal could initially involve plans to operate at least two ships a week. But the transportation of goods between the two countries is not so high, with which two ships can be operated weekly.
In this case, a similar deal with Myanmar will be fruitful. It would be advantageous to start shipping from Chittagong to Sittwe or Rangoon Port of Myanmar to Ranong port of Thailand.
Bangladesh Shippers Council Chairman Rezaul Karim said that, as announced by the Chinese President during his recent visit to Myanmar that a deep sea port is going to be established in Sittwe, and if shipping can be started between Chattogram to Ranong then it will be used as the largest water import-export route because China is the largest trading partner of Bangladesh.
China has undertaken several major infrastructure projects to build direct trade relations with Myanmar. Notable among these are the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi recently sought duty free facilities of the export products made in Bangladesh, including clothing, medicines and other products that are in demand in Thailand at the Joint Trade Commission meeting.
Even both, Bangladesh and Thailand have made policy decisions on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Thailand has said that the direct maritime relations with them will contribute positively to the expansion of Bangladesh's trade with Cambodia and Vietnam. As a result, now Bangladesh is planning to shift from west to east.
After a ban from India on onion export to Bangladesh, officials of the ministry concerned have been trying to ease the crisis by importing it from Myanmar, China, Egypt and Turkey. From the government's point of view, due to the heavy dependence on India, the price of the product rises several times to Tk 300 per kg. In this situation, if maritime relations are established with Thailand and Myanmar, there will be an opportunity to cut India's dependence on regular imports.
In addition, China, Myanmar and Thailand produce a large number of agricultural products. Even if food crisis occurs in Bangladesh, there is an opportunity to deal with it by importing rice from these countries in short time. The government's food and commodity imports are also having an impact on establishing maritime relations in the east, commerce ministry officials said.
Thailand is the most traded country with Bangladesh, followed by India and Pakistan among the southern countries of Asia. Trade between the two countries has reached $ 125 billion in 2018. At the moment, Thailand is giving duty-free facilities to Bangladesh for exporting 6,998 products.
