Bangladesh, IMO Sign Agreement on Shipbreaking
They agreed to cooperate on a project meant to improve safety and environmental standards in the industry. It will be executed by the Marine Environment Division of IMO, in partnership with the Ministry of Industries of Bangladesh, during the next 18 months.
The International Maritime Organization and the representatives of the government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh signed an agreement April 10 to work together to improve safety and environmental standards in the country's shipbreaking industry. Signing the Memorandum of Understanding were Nicolaos Charalambous, director of IMO's Technical Cooperation Division, Ashadul Islam, additional secretary of the Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance of Bangladesh. It commits the two parties to a joint project, "Safe and Environmentally Sound Ship Recycling in Bangladesh – Phase I."
Bangladesh's ship recycling industry has an annual gross tonnage capacity of more than 8.8 million, second only to India in terms of volume.
The project consists of five work packages and will be executed by the Marine Environment Division of IMO, in partnership with the Ministry of Industries of Bangladesh, during the next 18 months. The work packages cover studies on economic and environmental impacts and management of hazardous materials and wastes, recommendations for strengthening the government's one-stop service (in which various ministries with a responsibility for ship recycling offer a single point of contact for related matters), a review and upgrade of existing training courses, and development of a detailed project document for a possible follow-up project to implement the recommendations of phase I.
Principal funding for the project will come from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. The Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions will provide some EU funding related to management of hazardous materials, which will partly be implemented by the secretariat.