Potentials of the blue economy of the Bay of Bengal remain largely untapped due to inadequacy of investment and absence of comprehensive research on marine resources. Media reports published in national dailies on Monday said that although Bangladesh has exclusive rights to about 118,813 square kilometres of the sea the country is equipped to catch fish in a maximum area of 60 square kilometres of the Bay of Bengal. As a result, Bangladesh’s share in global fish production is limited to only 2.6 per cent. Countries bordering the Bay have so far extracted resources worth only $2.5 trillion as against its value worth $25 trillion. Bangladesh extracted only $9.6 billion, though its potential is much higher, say experts.
They say despite having a seaside frontier, a huge amount of offshore oil and gas remains just out of our reach. In contrast, Myanmar has already started to extract mineral resources from near Bangladesh’s sea blocks. Experts said this at a workshop styled as “Blue Economy and Course of Actions” jointly organised by Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) on Sunday. The Philippines, China, Thailand and Japan have been enjoying the vast benefits of their blue economies for a long time and a large percentage of their protein is derived directly from their oceans. Indonesia’s national economy also depends largely on its sea resources from where Australia is reported to earn $44 billion per annum.
The Blue Economy, which relates to all ocean-based industries, not merely the fish or mineral resources, may change the whole picture of Bangladesh’s economy. Utilising marine resources, industries such as tourism, shipbuilding and breaking, deep-sea fishing, medicine, and cosmetics can be developed further. The growth of the world economy in the next 10 to 20 years will be blue economy-centric, the speakers said and called for investment in this sector to harness the blue economy. It is possible to export billions of dollars from this sector in the coming years, experts forecast.
