Here’s a good news for Bangladesh apparel manufacturers! The country is working to launch direct merchant shipping services to the African nation of Morocco.
According to reports, Bangladesh Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan and Morocco’s envoy to Bangladesh Mohammad Houroro discussed this matter at a meeting held in the minister’s office room, Bangladesh Secretariat, on July 16, 2018.
Both the countries are working to initiate direct merchant shipping services between Chittagong port, Bangladesh, and Tanger-Med port in Morocco – what is said to be the biggest port in Africa and a global logistics gateway located on the Strait of Gibraltar.
The Tanger-Med port, which connects the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, is a strategically poised port which functions both as a transhipment hub – where containers are transferred between vessels before travelling elsewhere, and falls within a region of four export-oriented free-trade zones where customs duties are not imposed.
During fiscal 2017-18, Bangladesh exported US $ 18 million into Morocco – about 50 per cent of which (US $ 9 million) was readymade garments. Further research shows, US $ 5.8 million of it was fetched from knitwear products and US $ 3.2 million in woven.
The Tanger-Med port of Morocco can also function as an entry point to the European Union which currently is the biggest region-wise export destination for Bangladesh’s US $ 30 billion apparel industry.
Insiders believe, direct access to the Tanger-Med port will be a big boost for Bangladesh’s export-oriented industries. It is to be noted that Chittagong port is the principal port of Bangladesh that handled 80 per cent of the country’s export-import trade worth around $75 billion in 2016-17 fiscal year.
Among others present during the meeting at the Secretariat were Md Abdus Samad, secretary to the shipping ministry, and Hamid Machour, minister counsellor to the Moroccan embassy in Bangladesh.
