Home ›› 01 Nov 2021 ›› Editorial
Gunter Pauli's book, "The Blue Economy: 10 years, 100 innovations, 100 million jobs" (2010) brought the Blue Economy concept into prominence. The concept 'blue economy' was propounded in the Rio Summit of 2012 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). For centuries ocean has been a treasured source of revenue for humans. It is mined for minerals like crude oil, cobalt, nickel, salt, sand, gravel, and some manganese, copper and iron. A part from providing minerals, it is also a great source of climate regulation as it diminishes carbon and give oxygen. The ocean is an increasingly important source of biomedical organisms with enormous potential for fighting diseases. These are just a few examples of the importance of the ocean to life on land. The conservation and sustainable use of marine resources, oceans and seas to ensure the provision of economic and social benefits and ecosystem services to humankind. This makes the exploration of oceans even more important and enhances the role of blue economy towards the growth of a nation
The maritime sector of Bangladesh has enormous potential and its development is intrinsically linked to the development of the country. As Bangladesh is transforming into a developing country it needs to take effective steps on the blue economy for improved livelihoods while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem. The blue economy can play a very significant role in enhancing economic power of any country. The sea routes provide Bangladesh with trade opportunities and access to other states around the world. The government has to take decisive steps to create awareness regarding its blue economy among the people.
In an editorial recently published in this newspaper it was stated the “One of the resource components of the blue economy is gas in the depth of the Bay. Research findings say that there is a reserve of around 40 trillion cubic feet of gas under the jurisdiction of Bangladesh. The huge offshore oil reserve also remains unexplored. Through adopting proper technology, Bangladesh can produce energy using the current of sea water and also wind of the sea from 200 nautical miles.”
Being adjacent to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has sovereign rights on more than 118,813 sq kms of territorial sea, 200 nautical miles (NM) of exclusive economic zone and all kinds of animal and non-animal resources under the continental shelf up to 354 NM from its coastline. So, there are huge potentials of Bangladesh to implement sustainable Blue economy.
After resolution of delimitation disputes with Myanmar (2012) and India (2014), Bangladesh has started adopting Blue economy concept as its new development tool. A number of government bodies have already initiated programs related to Blue economy. Government of Bangladesh has also started showing interest on utilization of maritime resources under the title “Blue economy”.
As stated earlier Bangladesh is endowed with vast marine, coastal and inland water resources having great fisheries production potential, contributing 3.57 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country and almost one-fourth (25.3 per cent) to the agricultural GDP. Fish supplements about 60 per cent of our daily animal protein intake. More than 17 million people including about 1.4 million women depend on fisheries sector for their livelihoods by fishing, farming, fish handling, processing, etc. More than 80 per cent of labors engaged in fish processing industries are women and creating more employment opportunities to the country people (Fisheries Statisitical Yearbook 2017-18). Fishing in the Bay of Bengal is only confined within 200-meter depth. About 255 trawlers, 67669 mechanised and non-mechanised boats are engaged in marine fishing. Pelagic and deep-sea resources are still untapped. In the year 2017-18 total fish production from Marine source was 6.55 lac metric MT, which is only 15 per cent of the total production.
Bangladesh can emphasize on and develop coastal spots for tourism which can significantly contribute to the country’s GDP.
Bangladesh currently has three seaports- Chattogram, Mongla and Payra. More than 90 per cent of international trade in Bangladesh is done through these ports. Moreover, these ports provide other ancillary services that include inland container depot, dry dock and other facilities. Utilization of Mongla and Payra sea port have not been efficient enough because of communication constraints. It is hoped that accomplishment of Padma Bridge will increase the effectivity of the port exponentially. 80 per cent of total maritime trade in Bangladesh is done through Chattogram seaport. During 2010-2019, 1252.52lac metric tons of goods have been imported and 496.32 lac metric tons have been exported through Chattogram sea port. On the other hand, 496.8lac Metric tons of imports and 11.99 lac Metric tons have been done through Mongla port during the same time.
Bangladesh was one of the top ship breaking countries from 2004 to 2009. Around 100 shipbreaking yards of this country has dismantled a total of 2694 ships from 2009 to 2017 (Shipbreaking platform 2019). Ship recycling activities is concentrated in Sitakunda, just north of Chattogram city on the Bay of Bengal. This industry contributes approximately 70 per cent-75 per cent to national steel consumption. In total approximately 1.5-2.0 million tons are supplied by the national ship scrapping industry. This industry has also helped to meet the growing demand of furniture, household fittings of all classes that are obtained from scrapped ships. Released equipment like boilers, generator and various kinds of structural steel materials collected from ship breaking helped to grow many medium and small industries. About 2.4 million people are directly and indirectly involved in this industry.
Being a developing coastal country, Bangladesh has a high potential for ship building industry. But unfortunately, this industry has not yet flourished here. Local demands for small to medium vessels are met up with existing building facilities. Chattogram Dry Dock Ltd. (CDDL) is the only public enterprise which has a capacity of repairing ships up to 22,000 DWT. On average 14 ships are repaired annually. There is a significant market opportunity for dry-docking as the number of vessels using ports has increased with growing international trade volume in Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi seafarers are working in the international shipping and the inland and coastal shipping of other countries. These seafarers earn about $400 million per year. Generally, the seafarers don’t need to spend for their livelihood while working on board, so almost 100 per cent earnings are sent to the country as remittance. Besides seafarers, a good numbers of marine engineers, technicians, and welders including skilled laborers are working in foreign shipyards.
There are some other sectors from which Bangladesh can be benefited that include, blue technology, marine renewable energy, mineral mining, marine biotechnology products, salt production, marine aquatic products, inland water transport by which Bangladesh can develop blue economy.
Besides this, Blue Economy is a way to achieve SDGs. There are a total of 169 targets under 17 goals. Among them goal 14 deals with Ocean, it is titled “Conserve and sustainability use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”.
Bangladesh should establish coordination among the ministries, departments, authorities and corporations related to Blue economy, ensure balance between private sector, establish Marine Resources Research Centre and Training Institute at national level which would be able to prepare skilled power capable of surveying, exploring and exploiting, develop and promote Blue economy models of investment and businesses.
The civil society should come forward and participate in Blue economy dialogues, discussion forums, debates and editorials which will help to grow awareness about blue economy in general public.
For blue economy to thrive, the world needs to bring an end to irresponsible exploitation of oceans. maritime economy can help tackle post-LDC era challenges and propel the country to the right trajectory of development. What is needed is a time-befitting plan and embracing proper technology to gain the most out of the sector.
The writer is Senior Assistant Editor of The Business Post
