The government is going to prepare a strategic plan on 'ocean economy' with a view to ensuring proper management and utilisation of the country's marine resources, sources said.
Bangladesh won two maritime boundary cases in the International Tribunal for Law of the Seas (ITLOS) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague recently.
The verdict in one maritime dispute with Myanmar helped Bangladesh establish rights on 111,000 square kilometre area in the Bay of Bengal while that of another with India helped to get 19,467 sq km disputed area with India.
"Apart from preparing a central strategic plan, the ministries and departments will also prepare their respective action plans for proper management and use of sea resources," a senior official at the Ministry of Water Resources told the FE.
He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will sit with 35 ministries and departments concerned on Wednesday to discuss a central strategic plan as proper management of sea resources is considered as very important for the county's economy.
Sources said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) recently convened a meeting on strategic plan and acquiring of sea resources with PM's advisor on Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Dr Taufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury in the chair.
The meeting was told that the verdict on two maritime boundary cases had helped Bangladesh establish its rights on 118,813 square kilometres, which is equivalent to 80.51 per cent area of the mainland.
The victory has helped open new doors in the fields of ocean communication, goods movement, ship building and breaking, salt production, port service, power generation, aquaculture, tourism, energy and mineral resource, and biotechnology, the meeting was told.
It emphasised the need for attracting new investment to carry out non-exclusive multi-client seismic survey because of non-availability of necessary data for oil and gas exploration in deep sea blocs.
Besides, steps have been sought to attract international companies for exploration of oil and gas in the sea areas where the rights of Bangladesh have recently been established.
Some officials, in the meeting, also suggested for taking diversified steps for catching fish in mid and deep waters of the sea. In this regard, they asked for carrying out survey for finding out new fish estuaries in the deep sea, and infrastructural development in the coastal areas for preservation and fish transportation.
They also suggested for extension and strengthening of weather forecast and observation infrastructures of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department for carrying out activities relating to sea resource exploration.
According to a concept paper on the 'ocean economy' prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh has over 100,000 square kilometre area of exclusive economic zone.
The Bay of Bengal is considered as the Largest Marine Econosystem (LME) among 64 such LMEs of the world. It said many economic activities of Bangladesh are related to seas and oceans.
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