Espen Richter Vendsen, Ambassador of Norway to Bangladesh, said that positive changes are coming in Bangladesh’s shipbreaking industry. He made this comment while visiting Kabir Ship Recycling Facilities in Shitalpur, Sitakunda, on Sunday (March 3).
At that time, the ambassador was accompanied by Norway’s former climate and environment minister, Erik Soleimi, senior adviser of the Norwegian embassy in Dhaka.
Morshed Ahmed, deputy managing director Karim Uddin, director Abdul Karim Dulal, chief executive officer Meherul Karim, media adviser Mizanul Islam, yard coordinator Naval Engineer Al Amin, and technical coordinator Partha Sarthi Guha. Kabir Ship Recycling Facilities is an ISO-certified, HKC-2009-compliant green ship recycling facility and a Hong Kong Convention-safe and environmentally friendly ship reprocessing facility.
Norway’s former climate and environment minister, Erik Soleimy, said the shipbreaking industry had made excellent progress. I came to see this art in 2010.
The ambassador said that Norway is fully supporting the development of this industry.
He said that the cooperation of the government is needed. We are training. Norwegian ship owners are interested in ship recycling in Bangladesh.
Mehrul Karim, CEO of Kabir Group, told reporters, We started working in July 2014 to make a green yard. Standard Chartered Bank told us to develop the yard. Then we also started working to get a green certificate. I got my first green certificate in October 2022. I now have a green certificate from three institutes.
Regarding the cost of a green yard, he said there are two types of costs. Skilled manpower development and financial investment. We bought the equipment. Manpower trained. 30 crore has been spent. Its main objective is the safety of the environment and manpower.
He said that at the moment, the demand for scrap in the local market is low. Due to the dollar crisis, ship imports are also low. Most of the yards are being developed at this opportunity. When one of our firefighters got hit on the head while doing it, we sent him to the hospital.
