Time reduction at Ctg port to increase exports by over 7.0pc: WB official

A World Bank transport expert on Saturday said improvement in transport and logistics in Bangladesh would help boost its export receipt significantly.

A one-day reduction in dwell time [ship's stay time] at Chittagong port would increase export by 7.4 percent, added Tatiana Peralta.

She said reducing domestic logistic costs by 17 percent would also increase export by 7.4 percent.

Improving minimum speed along the national highways to 40 kilometres per hour would increase exports by 3.7 percent, according to the senior specialist.

"Achieving above three will increase export by approximately 19 percent," she said while presenting a keynote at a virtual meeting co-hosted by BUILD and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

Ms Peralta was speaking on how to reduce logistic costs to enhance Bangladesh's trade competitiveness and export growth.

The meeting was co-chaired by PMO secretary Md Tofazzel Hossain Miah and Abul Kasem Khan, chairperson of BUILD, a leading local public-private dialogue platform.

However, the WB expert cited the lack of efficient port infrastructure behind such poor logistics here.

"About 95 percent containers are destuffed at the port leading to congestion," she says as such delivery system leads to the creation of chaos in port activity.

Ms Peralta said better logistics could increase trade volume, diversify export basket, bring foreign investment and boost the country's economic growth.

She says inventory carrying costs represent 17-56 percent of logistical expenses.

Ms Peralta, however, suggests building container freight stations outside Chattogram area.

The country's premier port and the privately-owned depots have such freight stations there.

Addressing the meeting, Mr Miah said logistics needs more investment for bringing efficiency. For this reason, existing policies need to be reformed.

The sector should be based on technology and skills, he noted. "The private sector should assist with value-backed data."

In his speech, Mr Khan says developing countries invest 9.0-10 percent of their GDP to improve logistics.

Success stories of China, India and Vietnam stand out as best practices in the area of logistics, he adds.

"The return on investment [in logistics] is one of the highest in the world," noted Mr Khan.

He suggested that logistics be declared as a thrust sector alongside a high-priority sector and incentives be given to attract local and foreign investment.

The BUILD chair sought structural reforms to mitigate the bottlenecks of the logistics system in Bangladesh.

Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Rizwan Rahman focused on some specific solutions to this end.

He suggested inclusion of logistics in the industrial policy as a sector, privatisation of airports, seaports and railroads, incentivising decentralisation of industrialisation to woo investment and the making of a special procurement act to prepare logistics policy.

Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president Mahbubul Alam says there is no policy on the in-out time of container trucks in Chattogram.

"The establishment of a central truck terminal may reduce congestion at the biggest port of Bangladesh."

Mr Alam suggests water connectivity to reduce over-dependence on road.

BUILD CEO Ferdaus Ara Begum, Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association representative Capt Kamrul Islam Mazumder, AmCham president Syed Ershad Ahmed, Bangladesh Freight Forwarding Association president Kabir Ahmed and Policy Exchange chairman Masrur Reaz, among others, also spoke.