Live Correspondent: Newly established four marine academies in Rangpur, Barishal, Sylhet and Pabna are expected to start their academic activities from mid-January in 2021 on their respective campuses in a bid to create skilled workforce in the marine sector.

Talking to journalists, director of the project for establishment of the four marine academies Rafique Ahmed Siddique said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to open the marine academies through a video conference.

He said the first batch students of these academies – 50 students in each academy – for the 2020-21 sessions already started their studies in February this year at the Bangladesh marine academy in Chattogram.

In the new marine academies, two hundred more students will become skilled hands in the sector every year, he added. Rafique Ahmed Siddique said Bangladesh is a maritime nation with huge interest in maritime activities and seafaring is one of the contributing sectors to the global shipping industries.

“In any given time, approximately 16,000 Bangladeshi seafarers are working at home and abroad on various ocean going vessels thus contributing about US$300m to the socioeconomic development of the country. Bangladeshi seafarers are highly reputed for their sincerity, dedications, politeness, professional skills and proficiency in English language,” he added.

He also informed that the first public maritime institute to produce ratings in Bangladesh was established in 1952 and the first Marine Academy to produce cadets and officers was established in 1962.

He said all these institutes and academies are hugely contributing to the global ship manning sector.Realizing the need of the global industry, he said, Bangladesh government had decided to expand its seafaring sector by establishing four new marine academies at four more districts- Rangpur, Barisal, Sylhet, and Pabna- with a cost of Taka 521.46 crore.

The objective of the project is to expand the marine education and training across the country and create skilled marine officers or engineers as per the demands of the shipping industry, he added.

He said in the highly competitive seafarer’s market, Bangladesh looks forward to having some kind of cooperation with friendly nations or renowned shipping companies to assist in developing these institutes for its onward functioning.

These training institutes have been constructed for training and education of cadets and thus it does not aim for any kind of business or profit making and Bangladesh possesses a good number of master mariners, engineers and other academicians to impart necessary training, he added.

He said the supply of locally-trained and skilled mariners to the international markets can bring prosperity and can provide better opportunity to the young seafarers for better earning.

Bangladeshis are better skilled and capable of taking challenges even under stressful situation without making comparison of salaries or wages of the seafarers of other nationality, he added.

Consequently, Rafique Ahmed Siddique said, Bangladeshi mariners are more acceptable to any company around the world, including European shipping companies.

About 1.5 million seafarers are working on roughly about 70,000 oceangoing ships across the world. Among them, Bangladesh’s participation in the global scale is just about 16,000. Compared to the size of population of Bangladesh (160 Million), the country deserves to have more space in the global shipping market.

Marine profession in Bangladesh is one of the top ranking choices among the young job-seekers every year. Recruitment in the marine academy and also in the marine institute is through competitive examination, thus foreign shipping companies are increasingly recruiting Bangladeshi seafarers in their companies. It thus possesses huge potentials to be explored.

Dhaka, 11 December (campuslive24.com)//bsc