Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has committed to ratifying the Hong Kong recycling convention this year in a meeting with her Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.
Ratification by Bangladesh would be a major step forward toward bringing the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong Convention) into force.
Japan and Bangladesh have now signed a memorandum of cooperation on ship recycling.
In a joint statement on their strategic partnership following the meeting, Hasina expressed her intention to achieve an early accession to the Hong Kong Convention in 2023.
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida said he would support Bangladesh in the development of a treatment, storage and disposal facility (TSDF).
The Hong Kong Convention currently requires one leading recycling country of Bangladesh’s stature, and a major flag state — such as Liberia or the Marshall Islands — to fulfil the entry into force requirement.
India has already ratified the Hong Kong Convention.
The Japan Shipowners’ Association (JSA) welcomed Bangladesh’s commitment.
“I also heartily welcome the fact that prime minister Kishida showed his positive attitude for Japan’s support to the development of a TSDF facility in Bangladesh,” said JSA president Junichiro Ikeda.
Ikeda said that ratification of the Hong Kong Convention is essential for the transition of the shipping industry to zero-emission ships.
“We then believe that the rapid expansion of environmentally friendly shipyards in multiple countries such as Bangladesh, the world’s current top ship recycling nation in volume, in addition to India, which has already ratified the convention, is necessary through the early entry into force of the [Hong Kong Convention]. The JSA earnestly requests the governments of Japan and Bangladesh to further cooperate towards the same goal,” he said.
In May, the JSA plans to send its vice president Keiji Tomoda to lead a government and private sector delegation to Bangladesh.
The idea is to observe local yards and motivate stakeholders to develop green yards there and to ratify the Hong Kong Convention very soon.
Japanese owners have already shown their support for Bangladesh green recycling.
NYK has sent the 9,400-dwt multipurpose ship Kamo (built 1998) to be recycled at PHP Ship Breaking & Recycling Industries — one of only three yards in the country with a statement of compliance with the Hong Kong Convention.
Mitsui OSK Lines has also sent its 33,800-dwt woodchip carrier Siam Ocean (built 1995) for demolition at the same ship-breaking facility.
