BLUE ECONOMY FOR BANGLADESH IN ENGLISH

BLUE ECONOMY FOR BANGLADESH

Oceans cover 72% of the surface of our blue planet and constitute more than 95% of the biosphere. Life originated in the oceans and they continue to support all life today by generating oxygen, absorbing carbon dioxide, recycling nutrients and regulating global climate and temperature. Oceans provide a substantial portion of the global population with food and livelihoods and are the means of transport for 80% of global trade. The marine and coastal environment also constitutes a key resource for the important global tourism industry and expanding domain of nature-based tourism. The seabed currently provides 32% of the global supply of hydrocarbons with exploration expanding. Advancing
technologies are opening new frontiers of marine resource development from bioprospecting to the mining of seabed mineral resources. The sea also offers vast potential for renewable “blue energy” production from wind, wave, tidal, thermal and biomass sources.

The Blue Economy – Opportunities

The objective of the Blue economy initiative – the maritime pillar of the future strategy – is to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and employment opportunities in Bangladesh’s maritime economic activities in the short, medium and longterm time frames. The Blue economy initiative specifically aims to promote synergies and foster framework conditions that support specific maritime economic activities and their value chains. To realize the necessary international cooperation and support to elevate the Blue Economy to the international sustainable development agenda [17], Bangladesh amongst the coastal countries has targeted the preparatory process leading up to the first International Workshop on Blue Economy in Sep 1-2, 2014 in Dhaka. Hon’ble Prime Minister during the workshop emphasized that that Blue Economy could play an important role in the economic upliftment of the country in the context of poverty alleviation, ensuring food and nutrition security, combating climate change impacts.

Underlining Blue Economy as a window of opportunity for development, the Prime Minister expressed her resolve to turn the Bay of Bengal to a hub of economic development and prosperity; and observed that marine resources and services could significantly contribute to development of potential sectors like pharmaceuticals and agro-based industry and could also enhance foreign trade and foreign exchange. She, however, identified the lack of skilled human resource, institutions and technology as key challenge for Bangladesh to effectively utilize the marine resources. She also maintained that Bangladesh had already accorded priority to fishery, maritime transportation, ship-recycling, ship building, and coastal tourism considering their huge potential. She re-affirmed Bangladesh’s commitment to conservation and balanced development of natural resources keeping integrity of environmental and bio-diversity aspects while pursuing development for the people of the country. She expressed hope for the Workshop to come up with pragmatic guidance and perspectives towards development of blue economy.

Blue Economy for Bangladesh

Blue Economy requires a balanced approach between conservation, development and utilization of marine and coastal eco-systems, all oceanic resources and services with a view to enhancing their value and generates decent employment, secure productive marine economy and healthy marine eco-systems. Maritime functions in the context of Blue economy are not just economic sectors; they cover the relevant maritime value chains – including backward and forward linkages. This is important since large parts of the economic activities take place not in core sectors themselves, but in adjacent economic activities. Twenty six maritime economic functions can be identified from among the fishery, maritime trade and shipping, energy, Tourism, coastal protection, maritime monitoring and surveillance. In each of these functions, full account is taken of the value chains that are developed across a range of sectors. The following summarizes all maritime economic activities that have been identified and whose developments are now at various stages;

Maritime trade and shipping

More than 90% of the Bangladesh’s external freight trade is seaborne – and ongoing globalization has made this flow ever more important. The long coastline and age old tradition of sea navigation in Bangladesh have led to a relatively strong development of maritime services that support the sea trade and sea transport function .Considering the average import growth rate of 15.79% (last 10 years) and export growth rate of 15.43% (last 10 years), projected freight value for next ten years would be around USD 435 billion. In order to retain parts of the USD 400 billion in the country, over the ten years, Bangladesh must facilitate local shipping companies to add more ships to the existing fleet, freight operators to establish freight services including container liner services to carry goods to/from Bangladesh using our own as well as chartered ships and freighters.

Sea ports

Statistics reveals that economy of Bangladesh is heavily dependent on international trade where maritime ports play the key role of transporting 94% of our foreign trade. Bangladesh must enhance the existing handling capacities of ports and develop deep sea ports with more capabilities and modern handling equipment in Sonadia, Matarbari and Payra to cater for increased trade and commerce. Establishment of seaports can significantly reduce export lead times and earn steady flow of revenue for the country.

Inland waterway transport- 

Bangladesh has one of the largest inland water transport network in the world covering 24,000 km long with 1000 landing points and 21 inland river ports .There are more than 10,000 inland vessels, 75 coastal vesselsand about 6500 inland ships registered with department of shipping and almost all these vessels are built inside Bangladesh. The major navigation routes in Bangladesh are cantered at some important river ports such as Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chandpur, Bhairab, Barisal, Chittagong and Khulna. The connectivity of these ports especially in waterways is important for the economy. So the maintenance of the navigability of the rivers of the country should take priority which will in turn generate jobs, and is less expensive than road links.

Shipbuilding- Finally, the shipbuilding industry contributes to this function by providing the necessary equipment, which does not only cover ships but also the marine equipment in which our own industries can play an important role. Shipbuilding industry not only earns foreign exchange but also saves it where as in road and rail transportation about 100% transport vehicles/rolling stocks are imported from abroad. It should be promoted and nurtured in all possible ways, including its horizontally and vertically linked businesses, and given opportunities and incentives for growth and expansion

Ship recycling industries- During 2013,about 300 ships were dismantled, which is the highest number in six years and Bangladesh ranked 2nd considering number of ships while ranked 3rd from the point of gross tonnage. It provides about 70-75% scrap steel as raw material for Steel and Re-rolling mills, saving lot of foreign currency.

Fishery-

There are about 475 species of fish found in our EEZ compared to 250 species on land. Hilsashad (Tenualosa ilisha) is the largest and single most valuable species with annual catch of 340,000 MT, and generates employment and income for 2.5 million people valued at $US 1.3 billion per year. At present 50-60% of global Hilsa catch takes place in the coastal and marine waters of Bangladesh, 20-25% in Myanmar, 15-20% in India and the remaining 5- 10% in other countries. Future development prospects of aquaculture appear promising.

Marine aquatic products-marine finfish farming and freshwater finfish farming (trout, carp, eel, etc.) could be considered for cultivation. Algae extracts are used in cosmetic,  nutraceutical and pharmaceutical markets (macro algae and micro algae). There are already several products on the market such as PUFA’s (poly unsaturated fatty acids) like omega-3 and omega-6, but also antioxidants. Macro algae producers can target the human food market (already happening in Asia) but also the animal feed market.

Marine Biotechnology.

Blue biotechnology can also contribute to the development of specific biopolymers and bio membranes that improve the overall efficiency of the desalination process.

Oil and gas-

Some 26Tcf (trillioncubic feet) gas reserve has so far been discovered in Bangladesh, of which only about 1 Tcf is located in the offshore areas. The Sangu reserves of 0.8 Tcf have already depleted, whereas the Kutubdia reserves 0.04 Tcf are yet to be developed. Moreover, the drilling of the Magnama (3.5 Tcf) and Hatia (1.0 Tcf) yet to produce any commercial volumes of hydrocarbons. Due to close proximity to the discovered gas fields of Myanmar, some Bangladeshi blocks are likely to have comparable geological structures and gas/oil prospects

Sea salt production

Sea salt has been produced traditionally along the Cox’s Bazar coast of Bangladesh for generations. In a longer dry season, the salt farmers can get about 20 tons/ha production. The annual salt production in the Cox’s Bazar coastal segment of Bangladesh is 22MT.

Ocean renewable energy

Marine-based renewable energy such as wind, wave and tidal range and currents offers a significant potential to contribute to low-carbon energy supplies for regions with appropriate coastal features. A wind generator with a capacity of 2 MW has already been installed in the coastal area of Kutubdia, Bangladesh, but remains inactive.

Blue energy (osmosis) and biomass

Osmotic energy is based on the salinity gradient between salt and fresh water.

Aggregates mining (sand, gravel, etc.)

Beach material commonly known as sand varies in colour ranging from dark-brown, gray, black, light brown, golden to silvery white. Several investigations have been carried out in the coastal region to find heavy materials in the sandy beaches of Bangladesh. Sands containing valuable heavy minerals are found intermittently over the length of a 250 km coastal belt from Patenga to Teknaf. The entire coastal belt has been explored with the discovery of 17 deposits of potentially valuable minerals such as zircon, rutile, ilmenite, leucoxene, kyanite, garnet, magnetite and monazite.

Coastal tourism

Globally, coastal tourism is the largest market segment and represents 5 per cent of world GDP and contributes to 6-7 per cent of total employment.in Bangladesh The private sector must be mobilized to support sustainable tourism and needs access to financing for investing in greening practices.

Greening coastal belt/delta planning

This will help reduce wind pressure of cyclones and also solidification of new lands. Mangrove in the Sunderbans comprising of 577,040 hectares provide livelihood to about 7.5 million people, timber, wood, boat building materials, rafts and garan for tanning nets, honey, wax etc including acting as spawning/breeding ground for many species. Mangrove afforestation in newly accreted intertidal areas has been going on for decades now. Bangladesh is already working for delta planning and in the long run it will help sustain agriculture, river course and intrusion saline waters etc.

Conclusion:

In light of this, it is essential that Bangladesh recognizes the true potential of its marine resources and develops an integrated maritime policy that acknowledges the interlinkages that exist between the different domains and functions of its seas, oceans and coastal areas. The Blue Economy strategy builds on policy initiatives to recognize the potential of these marine resources and thus aids in realizing a future strategy towards smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Our ability to compete and achieve future success in maritime economic activities, such as deep sea fishing, aquaculture, international/coastal shipping, port infrastructure, coastal and cruise tourism, offshore drilling, renewable energy, biotechnology, coastal protection, salt production, human resource for maritime activities and development of existing islands and chars will have important knock-on effects for both
upstream and downstream suppliers. Successfully rolling out tomorrow's maritime economic activities will, therefore, have a positive impact on an entire portfolio of other maritime economic activities, namely those of a cross-cutting nature such as shipbuilding, blue biotechnology, drilling in the Bay and port infrastructure, human resource and maritime monitoring and surveillance.