1. The Bangladeshi military is changing and becoming more professional. This is the first group of senior officers trained in the Bangladeshi military academy as opposed to previous officers who were trained during the united Pakistan period.
2. One key feature of the military's new way of thinking is an emphasis on indigenization of defence production and insistence on ToT in any defence procurement deals.
The military has autonomy from the civilian government so such policies will continue regardless of the political party in office.
3. Bengal was historically a producer of ships and naval craft and is continuing this tradition.
4. The civilian ship building industry is looking to earn billions and billions of dollars of deals, as companies such as Ananda and Western Marine have sold hundreds of millions of dollars to countries such as Germany, Norway, Denmark etc.
5. Once Bangladesh starts producing quality naval craft there are a number of states that may be interested in acquiring inexpensive naval craft.
a: African states e.g. Liberia and others. Two African states have Bengali as an honourary official language as a gesture of gratitude for the role of Bangladeshi soldiers in UN peace keeping operations there.
b: Qatar and other GCC states. The Bangladeshi navy is now training the Qataris with Qatar being considered a mini-regional superpower in the Arab world.
25 navy personnel off to Qatar
DAHAKA, July 19 (BSS)- Twenty-five navy personnel among 100 selected for joining Qatar Coast Guard and Qatar Border Security Department left here today for Qatar.
The remaining 75 navy personnel are scheduled to leave Dhaka tomorrow, a press release of Inter Service Public Relations Directorate said.
Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral ZU Ahmed urged the Qatar bound navy personnel to work with utmost sincerity, honesty, dedication and professionalism to build a positive image for Bangladesh Navy.
Addressing at a farewell ceremony as the chief guest at Multipurpose Hall of Naval headquarter yesterday, he also said that it would depend on your performance whether more navy personnel from Bangladesh will be employed to Qatar.
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)
Bangladeshi prime minister with Qatar's leader.
Bangladeshis with Qatari figure.
6. We are still way behind Indonesia whom we were generally ahead of industrially a few decades back, and we need to work hard to restore parity with our Indonesian allies.
The military also intends to produce indigenous aircraft (first rotary) and other weaponry.
7. We also need to focus on our navy to defend and guard the potentially $5 trillion bay of Bengal from our two very aggressive and unstable neighbours, India and Burma.
8. We also need to consider how far our naval sphere of operations should be. This means considering whether we work on being able to project naval power on to the western side of the Indian ocean in East Africa where we have deals and investments including agricultural land for food security.
Our navy has a ship in the middle east off Lebanon, but we have no direct interests there though we do in the GCC region and in East Africa.
I would appreciate Asad71 bhai's views on this.
