Oceans and seas are the major sources of both finite and infinite resources, covering over two-third of the earth surface.
Those are the safe abodes of marine resources, which provide food and minerals and generate oxygen for the living things, absorb greenhouse gases, help check global warming, determine weather patterns and work as cheap-cost routes for maritime trade.
Many mega cities and the hubs of trade and commerce have been established on the seashores since the beginning of human civilisation aiming to utilise the advantages of maritime routes.
In the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-14, the United Nations has informed that more than 3 billion people directly depend on oceans worldwide for their livelihoods, while the value of the global ocean-based economy is estimated to be around US Dollar 3-6 trillion per year.
Realising the huge potential of marine resources, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujubir Rahman developed the Bangladesh’s maritime sector immediately after the birth of a new state.
As part of his visionary policy, he upgraded the sea-bound transportation connecting the whole world, rebuilt the seaports of a war-ravaged country and cleared the mines from Chattogram Port with support from Mine Clearance Force of the then Soviet Union.
Foreseeing the country’s marine potential, Bangabandhu had enacted the ‘Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act 1974’, which was a milestone in the maritime history of Bangladesh.
Nearly 46 years ago, the Father of the Nation announced the legal instrument to develop a sustainable ‘Blue Economy’ in the country even before the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted in 1982.
In fact, the Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act 1974 had laid the foundation for the country’s ‘Blue Economy’. Ceaseless efforts of Awami League government under the visionary and dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have earned a 1,18,813 square km boundary in the Bay of Bengal after settlement of long-pending maritime disputes with neighbouring India and Myanmar.
The law paved the way for the proper management and protection of the country’s marine resources, conservation of biodiversity, pollution control, coastal zone management, maintaining the marine-protected areas and shipping, harvesting marine fish and ensuring maritime governance as well.
The act provided an excellent roadmap for the demarcation of the country’s various maritime zones and a clear indication of its rights and responsibilities in sea, including regulations for ensuring maritime safety and security.
Following the foundation laid by the Father of the Nation, Bangladesh is now going to tap the marine potential by turning the Bay of Bengal into a hub of economic development to ensure the optimum use of its maritime resources in order to widen the country’s economic space.
Prospects: Bangladesh settled maritime boundary disputes with Myanmar in 2012 and with India in 2014 through an arbitral method. The newly- demarcated area of the Bay of Bengal has opened a fresh economic frontier for the country.
Experts claimed that fish alone has 500 varieties besides snails, shell-fish, crabs, sharks, octopuses and other animals.
Bangladesh is estimated to catch only 0.70 million tons of fish every year out of the total 8 million tons of fish available in the Bay of Bengal.
Besides fish and other living animals, Bangladesh could also have gas fields as it is reported that Myanmar has discovered a large gas field in its area of the sea. Experts are of the view that Bangladesh would be able to extract resources worth about $1.2 billion from the ocean.
The experts observed that Bangladesh should accelerate its efforts to harness huge potentials of ‘Blue Economy’ to attain double digit GDP growth as its maritime territory is rich with huge precious natural resources, living and non-living.
They mentioned that contribution of the vast maritime territory is only $9.6 billion or 6 percent annually to the Bangladesh economy, but it has the potential to contribute more to the economy if the resources are exploited properly.
“There are a lot of opportunities in the ‘Blue Economy’. We’ll have to utilize the resources under the water to boost the economy,” said noted economist and former Bangladesh Bank governor Mohammed Farashuddin.
Mentioning that the Bay of Bengal is enriched with huge resources, he said government needs planning to use these resources to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the Vision-2041.
The economist urged the authorities concerned to open a wing in planning ministry or under the Prime Minister’s Office for speeding up the initiatives to avail the opportunities of ‘Blue Economy’.
Government’s Initiative: In order to utilize its unexplored marine resources, Bangladesh has already taken initiatives to flourish its ‘Blue Economy’. Since 2015, the government has undertaken a number of consultations and workshops on the issue.
In 2017, the government established the “Blue Economy Cell’ with the mandate to coordinate ‘Blue Economy’ initiatives across sectoral ministries.
The government is going to enact ‘The Marine Fisheries Act-2020’ which will replace ‘The Marine Fisheries Ordinance-1983’.
Regarding different initiatives of the government, Secretary (Maritime Affairs Unit) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rear Admiral M Khurshed Alam said 26 maritime economic functions have been identified for development of ‘Blue Economy’ in Bangladesh.
The sectors, he said, are: shipping, coastal shipping, seaports, passenger ferry services, inland waterway transport, shipbuilding, ship recycling industries, fishery, marine aquatic products, marine biotechnology, oil and gas, sea salt production, ocean renewable energy, blue energy (osmosis) and biomass, aggregates mining (sand, gravel and others), marine genetic resource, coastal tourism, recreational water sports, yachting and marines, cruise tourism, coastal protection, artificial islands, greening coastal belt or delta planning, human resource, maritime safety and surveillance and maritime spatial planning (MSP).
Alam pointed out that full account in each of these functions has been taken of the value chains that are developed across a range of sectors.
He said well-trained, skilled and educated human resources are the driving force of the development of an economy, who can participate in the globalization of business and the accompanying technological revolution.
A thrust in blue economic growth may come from a large army of skilled coastal and offshore engineers, navigators, merchant mariners, fisheries technologists, biotechnologists and in a variety of other professions, he added.
After winning the sea area, Alam said, the present government is paying special attention to create skilled human resources for unleashing opportunities from the ‘Blue Economy’.
“Recently, the Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute (BORI) and a maritime university have been established for coastal and oceanic research and human resource development,” he added.
