The government has no plan to hand Chittagong port to a foreign operator, Shipping Minister Shaikh Rabiul Alam told parliament on 22 April 2026, according to UNB in The Financial Express. “There is no plan to hand over the Chittagong Port to any foreign operator,” he said, answering a question from Shahadat Hossain (Lakshmipur-1).
The minister noted that foreign operators already run the Patenga Container Terminal and that an agreement under a public-private partnership model has been signed with APM Terminals of Denmark for the Laldia Container Terminal. He said the port is an autonomous body governed by a board under the Chittagong Port Authority Act, 2022, and that about 96 per cent of the country’s sea trade passes through it.
The statement concerned the port as a whole rather than individual terminals. Six months later, DP World signed a concession for the New Mooring Container Terminal, and The Daily Star reported that the process to appoint an operator for the Chittagong Container Terminal had begun.
Source
- The Financial Express (UNB): “No plan to hand over Ctg port to foreign operator: Minister” (23 April 2026)
File photo: the Port of Chittagong. Photo: Moheen Reeyad / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This article is a summary prepared by Maritime News BD from the report(s) listed above; it was not independently reported by Maritime News BD.
