Bangladesh eyes 'blue economy' for sustainable growth

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will open
the two-day workshop on Monday.

This will be the first such workshop
Bangladesh will host.

Officials say the decision came following
Bangladesh's landmark settlement of maritime dispute with neighbouring India and
Myanmar.

Dhaka established its sovereign rights through international
court verdicts on more than 118,000 sq km of maritime territory, 200 nautical
miles (NM) of exclusive economic zone, and 354 NM continental shelves from the
Chittagong coast.

It has raised hopes of extracting "plenty of resources"
from the Bay of Bengal, considered by Bangladesh as its "third
neighbour".

Bangladesh, which lacks expertise and technology to exploit
the resources, will seek global partnership, particularly from neighbouring
countries.

Bangladesh is also considering drawing up a maritime
policy.

The workshop will help establish links and build relations with
countries having expertise, feels the maritime affairs department of the foreign
ministry.

Officials say Bangladesh also wants to better understand
through the workshop the dynamics of an ocean-based blue economy.

At
least 32 delegates from Australia, Seychelles, Sweden, Oman, China, South
Africa, Iran, the Philippines, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Thailand, South
Korea, Sri Lanka, United States, Kenya, Mauritius, Myanmar, Tanzania, and
Mauritius would join the three-sessions of the workshop.

Sri Lanka has
sent its minister for fisheries and aquatic resource development Rajitha
Senaratne.

A senior official said the Bay of Bengal is understood to have
a "geo-strategic link" but the workshop would focus solely on development
issues.

The meeting is aimed at exploring the ways to utilise the blue
economy as a development tool, he said.

Blue economy became a buzzword
for sustainable development particularly in drafting the post-2015 development
goals.

Earlier, small island nations used to discuss this at their own
forum.

"It (blue economy) is not marine fishing," said Md Khurshed Alam,
a secretary (maritime affairs) in the foreign ministry.

"It means
sustainable economic development, taking into account advantages and strategy of
managing the resources of the blue ocean," he said.

Estimates suggest
some 30 million Bangladeshis directly depend on oceanic economic activities like
fisheries and commercial transportation.

The foreign minister AH Mahmood
Ali earlier said Bangladesh believed poverty alleviation was possible by
fostering the growth of "blue economy".

He advocated this recently at a
global forum in the Dutch capital, The Hague, when he suggested inclusion of
oceans and seas in the post-2015 development agenda.

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/bangladesh-eyes-blue-economy-for-sustainable-growth/