Resources aplenty in the deep blue sea on the south of the country are awaiting exploitation. But the government does neither have a long-term plan nor the requisite manpower to tap, what is called, blue economy much to the people's benefit.
A seminar organised by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) in Dhaka early this week discussed elaborately the potential of the country's blue economy and problems with tapping the same. Discussants who included experts, foreign diplomats and policymakers, suggested both short- and long-term actions to overcome the deficiencies in the relevant areas.
Undeniably, there existed widespread euphoria when the country got the international sea tribunal verdicts on its dispute with two next-door neighbours --Myanmar and India -- over maritime boundary. The verdicts removed a major impediment to engaging in work for hydrocarbon exploration in deep sea blocks and exploiting all other marine resources, including fish.
But, unfortunately, Bangladesh does not have the capacity to do either of the two in a befitting manner. None would contest the fact that the country urgently needs to carry out exploration work in the potentially hydrocarbon rich areas in the deep sea. But it is not being able to make any headway because of the shortage of technical expertise and financial resources.Â
Without the direct involvement of the international oil companies (IOCs), Bangladesh can hardly make any progress in areas of cost-intensive hydrocarbon exploration. But the fact remains that, at the moment, there is virtually no taker of bids floated by the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to engage in exploration work in the deep sea blocks.
The Corporation has tried in many ways -- it even modified the bid conditions in line with the desires of some IOCs -- to woo foreign investment in the exploration work. But such attempts turned out to be barren, finally.
The current level of oil and gas prices in the international markets remains a great disincentive for the IOCs to engage in fresh exploratory work, particularly in areas where the element of uncertainty over hitting hydrocarbon deposits is relatively high.
Another untapped area in the Bay of Bengal is its fish resources. Most of the fishing trawlers now engaged in sea fishing have wooden hulls and they cannot go beyond a distance of 25 kilometres within the country's maritime boundary that extends up to 664kms.
A few steel-bodied trawlers can reach up to 50 to 60 kms, thus, leaving fish resources over a large area within the jurisdictions of the country untapped. Besides, fishing boats from neighbouring countries are, allegedly, frequently intruding into the Bangladesh maritime boundary in the absence of adequate security patrol, mainly because of capacity constraints. There is an urgent need to beef up the strength of the Bangladesh Coast Guard, equipping it with a sufficient number of vessels capable of patrolling deep sea areas and driving away the intruders.
More importantly, the country should build its own manpower capable of exploiting the marine resources without hurting the ecological balance. The University Grants Commission following requests coming from the maritime affairs unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has reportedly asked all universities to introduce maritime science departments to help produce necessary manpower to better exploit marine resources.
The introduction of a separate department is a good idea. But it should be supplemented by initiatives essential for creating the demand for the university graduates who would have specialised education in marine science. Any failure to do that would only give rise to a sense of frustration.
Thus, prior to going for opening such departments in both public and private universities, the government should formulate a comprehensive national strategy and a perspective plan to tap the great potential of blue economy. Under those, there should be plans and programmes, maybe for 20 years, and estimate on manpower requirement. On the basis of such planning, the UGC should identify the universities that are truly capable of producing quality manpower in this particular discipline.
The problem with higher education in Bangladesh is that universities have been churning out graduates in large numbers having no relevance to the demand for skills in the job market. Some public universities introduced many new subjects during the past few years without assessing the demand in the job market for the same. Â
It is widely believed that deep-sea resources, if exploited judiciously, would provide great dividend to the nation. But, until now, no tangible efforts are seen in that direction except for making tall statements by a few policymakers.
Since there is a lack of expertise at the national level to deal with maritime resources' issues, the government may hire the services of renowned international experts in the relevant fields while preparing the perspective plan and national strategy.
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The untapped treasures
Shamsul Huq Zahid | Published: August 24, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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