Gazi Anowarul Hoque :
Three years have passed since Bangladesh win its maritime boundary claim over India and Myanmar, but the government has not yet drafted its maritime law or research paper for use if resources through “Blue Economy” to generate employment and boost exports.
“It has created immense opportunity for the development of the country’s economy promoting the marine-based economic activities and management of sea and its resources.,” experts said adding that the concept of blue economy in our country could be developed in emerging sectors like shipping and port facilities, sea borne trade, sustainable fisheries, coastal tourism, aquaculture, renewable blue energy, biotechnology, submarine mining and others.
Especially ocean offers enormous potentials for the generation of renewable energy viz. wind, wave, tidal, biomass and thermal conversion. This renewable energy source could help diversify our energy portfolios and secure higher levels of energy security.
Eighty percent of global trade by volume and 70 percent by value is are carried out by sea and handled by ports worldwide. The global sea borne trade has increase by 4.3 percent with the total reaching over nine billion tonnes in 2012 for the first time ever, according to the 2014 edition of the Review of Maritime Transport of UNCTAD.
Globally, 350 millions of jobs are linked to marine fisheries, with 90 percent of fishermens living in developing countries. Marine fisheries contribute at least 20 percent of total fish production in Bangladesh and 500,000 people are fully and directly dependent on the sector. About 60 lakh tonnes of fishes that constitute 16 percent of world production are produced annually from the Bay of Bengal, and about 45 lakh people are engaged in fishery, according to the Bay of Bengal Large Maritime Ecosystem Project run under the supervision of FAO in 2009.
Insiders say, only an international seminar was held on “Blue Economy” after Bangladesh won its maritime boundary dispute in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on March 14, 2012. At a seminar, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, “It is time-befitting in the present perspective to continue sustainable trend of Blue Economy using huge natural and mineral resources in and under the sea and the adjoining areas of the ocean.”
She also stressed creating skilled manpower to exploit the marine resources from within the country’s huge sea boundary, saying that the nations utilizing the sea and its resources became more prosperous economically than others.
Professor Dr. Md. Kawser Ahmed, Chairman of Oceanography Department, University of Dhaka said to this correspondent that sustainable blue economy and blue growth for sustainable development are not possible without ensuring maritime security, protecting and preserving marine environment, conserving marine living and non-living resources, preventing marine pollution and formulation of a maritime law.
We should complete research work in order to draft maritime law, he added.
Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul haque told the Daily New Nation, “We have worked enough for blue economy. Two deals already were signed between Bangladesh and India on June 6–one was on “Blue Economy and Maritime Cooperation in the Bay of Bengal and in the Indian Ocean”, envisaging cooperation on blue economy and maritime sphere for capacity building, training and joint research collaborations, and setting up of a Joint Working Group for further cooperation in this area.
The other MoU was signed between Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of India and University of Dhaka for joint research on oceanography in Bay of Bengal. “So very soon we will reach our goals,” he hopes.
Three years have passed since Bangladesh win its maritime boundary claim over India and Myanmar, but the government has not yet drafted its maritime law or research paper for use if resources through “Blue Economy” to generate employment and boost exports.
“It has created immense opportunity for the development of the country’s economy promoting the marine-based economic activities and management of sea and its resources.,” experts said adding that the concept of blue economy in our country could be developed in emerging sectors like shipping and port facilities, sea borne trade, sustainable fisheries, coastal tourism, aquaculture, renewable blue energy, biotechnology, submarine mining and others.
Especially ocean offers enormous potentials for the generation of renewable energy viz. wind, wave, tidal, biomass and thermal conversion. This renewable energy source could help diversify our energy portfolios and secure higher levels of energy security.
Eighty percent of global trade by volume and 70 percent by value is are carried out by sea and handled by ports worldwide. The global sea borne trade has increase by 4.3 percent with the total reaching over nine billion tonnes in 2012 for the first time ever, according to the 2014 edition of the Review of Maritime Transport of UNCTAD.
Globally, 350 millions of jobs are linked to marine fisheries, with 90 percent of fishermens living in developing countries. Marine fisheries contribute at least 20 percent of total fish production in Bangladesh and 500,000 people are fully and directly dependent on the sector. About 60 lakh tonnes of fishes that constitute 16 percent of world production are produced annually from the Bay of Bengal, and about 45 lakh people are engaged in fishery, according to the Bay of Bengal Large Maritime Ecosystem Project run under the supervision of FAO in 2009.
Insiders say, only an international seminar was held on “Blue Economy” after Bangladesh won its maritime boundary dispute in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on March 14, 2012. At a seminar, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, “It is time-befitting in the present perspective to continue sustainable trend of Blue Economy using huge natural and mineral resources in and under the sea and the adjoining areas of the ocean.”
She also stressed creating skilled manpower to exploit the marine resources from within the country’s huge sea boundary, saying that the nations utilizing the sea and its resources became more prosperous economically than others.
Professor Dr. Md. Kawser Ahmed, Chairman of Oceanography Department, University of Dhaka said to this correspondent that sustainable blue economy and blue growth for sustainable development are not possible without ensuring maritime security, protecting and preserving marine environment, conserving marine living and non-living resources, preventing marine pollution and formulation of a maritime law.
We should complete research work in order to draft maritime law, he added.
Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul haque told the Daily New Nation, “We have worked enough for blue economy. Two deals already were signed between Bangladesh and India on June 6–one was on “Blue Economy and Maritime Cooperation in the Bay of Bengal and in the Indian Ocean”, envisaging cooperation on blue economy and maritime sphere for capacity building, training and joint research collaborations, and setting up of a Joint Working Group for further cooperation in this area.
The other MoU was signed between Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of India and University of Dhaka for joint research on oceanography in Bay of Bengal. “So very soon we will reach our goals,” he hopes.
