Commerce Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, among others, is seen on the occasion of handing over two ships by local shipbuilder Ananda Shipyard and Slipways to a Danish buyer yesterday. Photo: STAR

The quality of shipbuilding is attracting European buyers to come and place their orders with Bangladeshi companies, said the chairman of Stella Shipping yesterday.

The comment was made at the handing over ceremony of the two multipurpose ships to their Danish owner built by Ananda Shipyard and Slipways, a local shipbuilder. The pair are the first major vessels produced for the first time in more than hundred years.

“Bangladeshi ships are really better in quality than Vietnam and Singapore, which helps to draw the attention of European buyers,” he added.

Commerce Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, formally handed over the two ships and said Bangladesh needs to exploit the opportunity that many countries are not building small and medium ships anymore.

“Bangladesh has started drawing attention of the global shipping companies amid traditional shipbuilding nations' focus on building large ships,” he said.

Yesterday two ships, Stella Maris and Stella Moon were handed over to the Danish shipping company. Stella Moon was delivered before its deadline in November. Einer H Jensen, ambassador of Denmark and Nurul Amin, secretary of ministry of industry were also present at the ceremony.

Afruja Bari, MD of Ananda Shipyard and Slipways, at the ceremony demanded that the government reduce the amount of current bank guarantee of seven percent to one percent to encourage local entrepreneurs to invest in this promising sector.

“As South Korea and China are reluctant to build small ships and Bangladesh has proven its ability in building and delivering the product on time, this creates a bright future for the country,” said Jan Fabricius, chairman of Stella Shipping.

Ananda is awarded with orders to build 24 ships including six ferries, from countries such as Denmark, Germany and Mozambique.