Red Sea Gateway Terminal, a Saudi-owned port company, today (24 January) expressed its interest in managing the deep-sea port of Matarbari in Bangladesh.
Aamer A Alireza, the executive chairman of the company, said it can help transform Matarbari into one of the largest ports in the region.
He made the comments when he called on Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus on the sideline of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in the Swiss mountain city of Davos, reads a press release.
The chief adviser asked the company to invest more in Bangladesh and help attract more foreign direct investment to the country.
He said Bangladesh would develop more ports along the Bay of Bengal to turn the Chattogram region into an export and shipping hub for countries in the region.
The Red Sea Gateway, which manages Patenga Terminal, has planned to invest nearly $200 million to boost the efficiency and capacity of the terminal, Alireza said.
He said the company has ordered an import of $25 million of container handling cranes and other equipment from China recently and would order another $25 million worth of equipment in the next few weeks.
“These are hybrid equipment, meaning they can be run by both electricity and fuels. They will cut emissions,” he said.
Describing Matarbari as one of the most important deep-sea ports in the region, Alireza said his company is interested in investing in the port and turning it into one of the major shipping hubs in the region.
He said port efficiency in Chattogram will woo huge foreign direct investment in the country as many top manufacturers will be keen to relocate their factories in the country.
Lamiya Morshed, the SDG coordinator of the Bangladesh government, and Tareq Ariful Islam, Dhaka’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, also attended the meeting.