KALADAN NEWS

January 31,2003

Bangla-Myanmar shipping begins

Chittagon, January 31:A shipping service began

yesterday between Bangladesh and Myanmar, marking the

first legal sea vessel between the neighbours since a

1988 coup in Yangon, said in the  Daily Star..

The Singapore-flagged container ship left Bangladesh's

main port at Chittagong for a two-day journey to

Yangon, the paper further said.

"The launching of this service would reduce cost and

save time," said Nelum Attanayake of Orient Express

Lines, the ship's owners.

Earlier, most sea trade between the neighbours was

routed via Singapore, a 10-day journey, said Ahsanul

Huq Chowdhury, Orient Express Lines' local

representative.

Singapore- based feeder vessel operator ‘OEL’ Nelum

yesterday told reporters that the freight charge will

reduce by 15 per cent.

The step comes a month after Myanmar Senior General

Than Shwe came to Bangladesh, becoming the first

leader of the Yangon junta to visit since the 1988

coup. The two countries agreed to boost trade.

Myanmar, then known as Burma, was one of the first

countries to recognise Bangladesh after it won

independence from Pakistan in 1971.

But relations were strained in the early 1990s when

around 250,000 Rohingya Muslims flooded into

Bangladesh from Myanmar, claiming atrocities by the

junt, said the Daily Star.

Ties have improved since then, with the repatriation

of most of the refugees under a United Nations

agreement, but more than 20,000 still live in camps in

Bangladesh, the paper further said.

The neighbours have a small amount of bilateral trade,

with Myanmar exporting timber, maize, rice and fish

and Bangladesh selling fertiliser, cement and

medicine.

Trade of both countries will greatly benefit from this

direct service, said agent of the shipping line ‘

Orient Express Lines’,Ahasanul Hug Chowdhury

yesterday.

Editor

Kaladan Press Network