Blue Economy: A New Prospect for Bangladesh Essay

Bangladesh has indeed been maintaining commendably a high growth rate of GDP in the range of 6-7 per cent annually almost for two decades. It is currently one of the emerging economies of the world, advancing based mainly on three sectors:  readymade garment industry, agriculture and remittances. But Bangladesh, being a country of having more than 160 million people, can add another sector to the list if it can exploit the vast potentials of blue economy.

After the two verdicts of International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) regarding the settlement of maritime dispute initially with Myanmar in march 2012 and then with India in July 2014, Bangladesh obtained its absolute maritime territory of 1,18,813 square kilometers, 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and an additional area of continental shelf (sea bed) from the coast. The total area falling under the sovereign rights of Bangladesh makes up 81% of the mainland of Bangladesh. It is like that we have got another Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal as the whole area has nearly doubled trough it.

The delimitation of sea boundary with Myanmar and India has indeed opened up a new window of opportunities in terms of harnessing resources and enhancing existing external trade. The ocean is one of Earth’s valuable natural resources. It provides food in terms fish and shellfish. It is used as a prime mode of transportation – both shipping and travel. It is mined for minerals (salt, sand, gravel, copper, cobalt etc can be found in the deep sea) and drilled for crude oil and gas. These elements together constitute what we call “Blue Economy”. Now the question arises what type of potentials actually we have regarding blue economy. Are we prepared enough to exploit this advantage? After fifty months of achieving our full maritime area what initiatives the government has taken so far to extract these untapped resources related to blue economy? Let’s try to find out the answers of these queries. 

Bangladesh, a unique delta, has been blessed with nice sea outlet but the potentials in the Bay of Bengal have never been properly exploited. Thus, it remains untapped which have many things to offer. The Bay of Bengal and coastal areas can be powerhouse of our national economy. A sustainable marine economy extending close to the coast can bridge shore and off-shore divide. The Bay of Bengal itself is the largest one among 64 bays in the world and 1.4 billion people live along its coastline in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Thailand. At least twenty six maritime activities can be generated here which include fishery, shipping, maritime trade, energy, seabed tourism etc.

Fishery is one of the most important sectors of blue economy. Fish makes up 15.7 per cent of animal protein consumed globally and the value of fish traded by developing countries is estimated at USD 25 billion. There are about 475 species of fish found in Bangladesh EEZ compared to 250 species on land. Marine fish contributes at least 20 per cent of total fish production in the country and as many as half a million of people are directly dependent on this sector. Whereas about 80 million metric tons fishes are caught every year in the Bay of Bengal, Bangaladeshi fishermen can reap only 7 million tonnes and the bulk of it  is taken by the fishermen of India, Myanmar, Thailand  and other countries. This why Bangladesh, at present, is not in the list of top twenty  marine fish producers of the world to which India, Myanmar and Thailand are advancing in the ranking every year. Improved, faster and eco-friendly fishing trawlers are the demand of the hour to harvest our marine fish resource.

Shipping and port facilities are considered as the backbone of blue economy. Eighty per cent of global trade by volume and over 70 per cent by value are carried by sea and handled by ports. World seaborne trade is growing by 4 per cent and is projected to triple by 2030. Bangladesh as a coastal state needs to stand out prominently in terms of port facilities and capacities to keep pace with the growing trade. Considering the average global import export growth rate of 11 and 10.50 per cent respectively (calculated on last ten years figure), the projected freight value would be around USD 435 billion. In order to have some portion of share of this amount Bangladesh must enhance the handling capacity of its ports and develop deep sea port equipped with modern handling equipments. Around 600 ships anchor in Chittagong and Mongla port per year. Certainly, the number can be substantially increased and Bangladesh can earn a hefty amount of money as port duties with the opening out of blue economy.

Bangladesh has so far discovered 26 gas fields by which we had 27.12 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) gas. But we have already exhausted well over 14 Tcf. According to Petrobangla, the remaining reserve of gas in the country is estimated around at 13 Tcf. In the face of ever-increasing demand of gas in the country this reserve would run within 10 to 12 years. And there is no real probability of finding more gas fields in the near future. What will happen after that? Under such circumstances, there is no option left for Bangladesh other than exploring gas blocks in the Bay of Bengal.

A recent survey jointly conducted by Petrobangla and the United States Geological survey (USGS) has indicated we have a huge amount of gas reserve in the Bangladesh’s maritime area of the Bay of Bengal. Exploration activities in the offshore today are going on slowly with only 3 blocks being active by International Oil Company (IOC) under production sharing contract (PSC). There has been no offshore drilling in the last seven years and success in negotiation is not visible enough. Yet, on the other side of maritime boundary Myanmar has already stepped up its exploration activities. The most recent gas discovery, the Thanin gas field, as it is named, took place in January 2016. It is located in the Myanmar offshore block A-7, very adjacent to one of the offshore blocks of Bangladesh. Peter Colman, chief executive of the Australian based Woodside Oil Company – which has discovered this gas field – has said this discovery testifies the high gas potentials around the surrounding blocks. To sum up, we may agree with the geologist’s belief that a large delta like Bangladesh should form a very rich gas province. 

In today’s world there is nothing more significant than a sustainable economy. Blue economy has become a part and parcel of Bangladesh’s post 2015 development agenda.  The goal no. 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) says, “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans and seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. The present Bangladesh government is advancing with some per-fixed development visions of aiming at making Bangladesh a middle income country by 2021 and developed one by 2041. If we want to achieve SDGs and materialise this vision, there is no alternative other than focusing on blue economy. We must have to devise a master plan encompassing the potentials of entire coastal belt. We need a combination of political leaderships, efficient bureaucracy with entrepreneurial spirit to materialise that plan.

If we do this, only then we can cash in on blue economy and transform the country sustainably.

 #collected from Facebook