THE Bay of Bengal can emerge as a highly prospective source of the blue economy depending on whether Bangladesh can take full advantage of its sea borne resources like gas, fish and shipping. Some foreign countries and companies have grabbed the opportunity as was reported in a local English daily on Tuesday while it said Bangladesh was falling behind.
The blue economy encompasses all economic activities associated with the oceans, harbours, ports and coastal zones and other blue water based activities. It is related to seaborne trade and commerce, ocean science and such other economic and defense pertinent things. Bangladesh has vast sea boundaries with 12 nautical miles of territorial sea, 200 nautical miles of an exclusive economic zone and a continental shelf going beyond 200 nautical miles. Moreover it has over 700km of coastal frontiers. With the resolution of maritime boundary disputes with Myanmar and a similar arbitration which is in progress with India, the country is entering into a new phase when it may take up far reaching projects to harness the wealth at the sea bottom. The two sea ports already provide the gate way to the sea and continental trade and the proposed deep sea port at Sonadia which is closer to Cox’s Bazar may take the nation further towards exploitation of the sea.
The report has rightly raised the issue of capacity building to explore the sea resources which are partly lying idle and vulnerable to regional exploiters who are engaging in piracy in Bangladesh’s territorial waters. It is to everyone’s knowledge that Bangladesh has already offered gas blocks in the sea to international oil companies (IOCs) while we are drilling gas from at least one gas field. The government is trying to put more gas blocks to foreign firms for exploitation. Moreover, marine fisheries is yet another area which may enhance the stock of catch for domestic market and also be exported. Sea can be a good alternative source of our foodstuff.
What the country needs is state of the art equipment and modern sea boats to compete with the maritime explorers of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. We need to train our manpower to guard the resources and take the harvest to the shore.
We also need to better utilize sea routes by using the ports. We know that talks about formation of a new regional economic forum are in progress which would include Bangladesh, Myanmar, India, Thailand and China. It will also increase the use of sea lane trade and ports to bring prosperity not only to Bangladesh, but to all regional countries.
The climate science is yet another challenge tied to the sea. The rising sea level and salinity are two big challenges to the coastal population and we have to have enhanced our capacity to handle the sea.
We should therefore learn more how to better use the national oceanographic research institute to understand the meteorological behaviour and related aspects in the Bay of Bengal and line up development projects accordingly. It is time Bangladesh must prepare to use the sea resources and equip its manpower with knowledge and technology to bring prosperity to the nation.
