Bangladesh is a maritime nation by location, heritage and workforce, yet its maritime policy remains anchored to a framework designed for another era. While nearly 90 percent of global trade moves by sea, Bangladesh continues to operate a closed ship registry that restricts foreign participation and limits the growth of national tonnage. In contrast, countries with fewer natural advantages—Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands—have turned their registries into global economic and strategic assets. Bangladesh's registry, by comparison, remains small and inward-looking, with only 95 vessels flying the national flag as of 2023. For a country with a 700-kilometre coastline, established marine academies and one of the world's largest ship-recycling industries, this marginal presence on global shipping lanes is not inevitable. It is the result of policy choices and a condition that can be changed.
At the heart of the matter lies a legal and structural constraint: under the Merchant Shipping Ordinance of 1983, only ships with majority-ownership held by Bangladeshi entities may register under the national flag. This rule, a vestige of protectionist thinking, has inadvertently weakened the very capacity it was meant to preserve. Local shipowners often bypass the Bangladeshi flag entirely, choosing instead to register in Panama, Malta, or the Cook Islands, where taxes are lower, documentation is minimal and global service networks operate round the clock. Foreign owners, who control the overwhelming majority of world tonnage, have no pathway to register in Bangladesh even if they wished to. As a result, our flag appears rarely on global shipping lanes, relegated to coastal vessels and a small group of domestic operators. The consequences are severe: lost revenue and visibility, diminished diplomatic influence at the International Maritime Organization, and perhaps most painfully, lost opportunities for Bangladeshi seafarers.
It is here that the crisis becomes personal. Bangladesh produces a large number of competent maritime cadets each year—young men and women who complete rigorous academic programmes and meet international standards. Yet many of them cannot obtain the mandatory sea time required to qualify as officers because the national fleet is too small to accommodate them. This mismatch between talent and opportunity causes thousands of cadets to remain unemployed or underemployed, even though global shipping periodically faces shortages of trained officers. Bangladesh has yet to solve this issue because it lacks the tonnage necessary to anchor a sustainable pipeline of maritime employment.
A path forward exists, and it is both practical and proven. Bangladesh can establish an international open ship registry under a public–private partnership model, allowing foreign-owned vessels to register under the Bangladeshi flag while maintaining strong regulatory oversight. Under such an arrangement, the state retains sovereignty, legal authority and control over standards, while a private partner—typically an experienced international registry operator—handles marketing, global customer service, digital certification and compliance support. This structure mirrors the Liberia registry, the Marshall Islands registry and the modern Panamanian model. It is efficient, profitable and globally accepted. Most importantly, it is fast. Rather than spending decades building overseas offices, technical capacity and marketing channels, Bangladesh could leapfrog directly into the global registry market by leveraging a partner with existing infrastructure.
But revenue, while important, is not the primary motivation for such reform. The strongest national interest lies elsewhere: expanding employment and training opportunities for Bangladeshi cadets and officers. When a country operates a substantial fleet under its own flag—whether domestically owned or foreign-owned, it gains leverage to require or incentivise shipowners to employ its citizens. India has understood this better than perhaps any other country in the region. In 2025, MSC, the world's largest container carrier, agreed to re-flag twelve vessels to the Indian registry following high-level discussions in New Delhi. This outcome did not occur by chance. India tightened cabotage rules, reformed its merchant shipping law, offered targeted incentives for Indian-flagged vessels and used its vast domestic cargo base to make Indian registration commercially attractive. The results were immediate: more ships under the flag and more jobs for Indian seafarers.
That initiative marked only the beginning. India has since announced an ambitious target to re-flag at least 300 foreign-owned ships by 2030. This drive is part of a broader strategic vision—to reduce the country's massive annual freight bill, enhance logistical resilience, strengthen its maritime industrial base and position itself as a global supplier of seafarers. Above all, it seeks to create employment for its maritime workforce. Re-flagging is viewed not as a narrow fiscal instrument, but as a national development strategy. Through tax incentives at Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City, simplified digital registration, broader ownership eligibility, bareboat charter registration and favourable cargo policies, India has made its flag commercially compelling. The lesson for Bangladesh is not about scale, but about intent: a nation that controls more tonnage creates more opportunities for its people.
For Bangladesh, a modern, well-regulated international ship registry would generate revenue, enhance global stature and expand maritime services, but its most meaningful contribution would be resolving the long-standing bottleneck in cadet training and officer progression. By embedding seafarer employment requirements into the registry framework—through mandatory cadet berths, officer development quotas, financial incentives or reduced fees for compliant vessels—Bangladesh can convert each newly registered ship into a training platform. Liberia, Cyprus and the Marshall Islands already employ such mechanisms, and they work.
Critics often argue that open registries primarily benefit foreign shipowners. They misunderstand the nature of the modern registry business. It is not about subsidising trade; it is about exporting a sovereign service—legal order, regulatory reliability and compliance infrastructure. Panama and Singapore have demonstrated how such models can strengthen national capacity rather than dilute it. The greater risk lies in inaction. Maintaining a closed, outdated system means forfeiting revenue, influence and human capital while neighbours move ahead. We cannot afford to remain a spectator.
To move forward, a political endorsement is essential. An international registry must be treated not as a bureaucratic extension but as a core pillar of the country's Blue Economy strategy. Legislative reform should allow dual registries: a closed national registry for domestic vessels and an open international registry for foreign-owned ships. A transparent and competitive tender should select an experienced global registry operator to manage day-to-day operations under state supervision. Compliance must be strict, with recognised classification societies authorised to inspect and certify vessels on Bangladesh's behalf. Digitalisation must be mandatory, ensuring fast, paperless and globally accessible services.
Bangladesh's maritime future does not depend on building more ships; it depends on building smarter policy. With a well-structured, PPP-run international ship registry, Bangladesh can honour its past while claiming its place in the future. The Bangladeshi flag can fly across the world—not as a flag of convenience, but as a flag of confidence, capability, and national aspiration.
Ahamedul Karim Chowdhury is adjunct faculty at Bangladesh Maritime University and former head of the Kamalapur Inland Container Depot and the Pangaon Inland Container Terminal under Chittagong Port Authority.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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