I was in Bangkok on Friday, speaking with the Bank of Thailand about relations between China and the Middle East. I also stopped by Precious Shipping, a large shipping company. The owner is an ethnic-Indian, but his father was born in Rangoon, before eventually migrating to Thailand where he got his start as a rice-trader. The company is now staffed by largely ethnic-Indians. It is an impressive operation and a reminder of the region’s deep commercial ties.
I was fascinated to learn that the shipping industry has laid-off a large number of Bangladeshi crew in recent years. It seems Bangladeshi nationals have had trouble obtaining United States visas since 2001. But if they don’t have visas, then they can’t disembark at United States ports, and the shipping companies have to pay $10,000 a day to hire security teams to guard them. Now an ordinary crew member earns less than $2,000 a month, so that’s clearly not good economics. And many have lost their job as a result.
I mention this in reference to my earlier blog about visa problems. I’m a big believer that visa policies have a major, but often unseen, impact on the global economy. The large numbers of Arab traders visiting China since 2001 is a case in point. The laid-off Bangladeshi crew is another. My guess is that some of the crew members have since joined the 450,000 Bangladeshis building apartments and freeways in Saudi Arabia, among other places in India and the Middle East, thus strengthening the region’s ties.
