Exploring blue economy

From time immemorial mankind has been ceaselessly exploring and exploiting the natural resources of the planet for survival. Application of state of the art technology along with the use of chemicals and fertilisers has brought unthinkable improvement in agricultural productivity. But along with it have come the dangers of pollution, imbalance of environment and emission of carbon causing what is now well known as green house effect.
The earth is getting increasingly over-populated. These people will have to be fed, clothed and provided with shelter. So economic activities will continue to meet the ever mounting human needs. And in this, surface resources are not adequate. It is thus time to turn to marine resources with all seriousness. The prospects of blue economy are multidimensional and it has opened a new horizon for economic development of the coastal countries through utilising sea and marine resources. Thus blue economy has become a buzzword. All coastal countries are becoming more and more vocal demanding their legitimate share of the pie. Bangladesh after protracted legal battle in the international maritime court succeeded in getting its due share. Sovereign right has been established on more than 118,000 km of maritime territory 200 nautical miles (NM) of exclusive economic zone and 364 NMs of continental shelf after positive verdict. In the same way, the verdict declared in July, 2014 allowed Bangladesh's sovereign rights on all the living and natural resources of the continental shelf extending up to 354 nautical miles. The role of marine resources in poverty alleviation, achieving autarky in food, protecting environmental balance, facing adverse impacts of climate change and other economic possibilities are immense. However, these potentialities and possibilities are inextricably linked with certain challenges. These may be summarised as follows: (i) ensuring the sovereign right over the total area, (ii) maintaining the security of the economic area (iii) establishing marine friendly infrastructure for marine tourists, (iv) protecting the area from the international smugglers and pirates, (v) sustainable use of biodiversity, (vi) preserving mangrove and sea grass, (vii) Keeping the sea free from pollution and marine debris.
The above are some of the major challenges and more issues are there to reckon with. The government will have to draw a perspective plan. We will need foreign co-operation and collaboration, particularly for availing state of the art marine technology. We hope that an elaborate statement along with the future planning as regards blue economy will be placed before parliament soon. Every action to be taken in connection with blue economy should be transparent.
Foreign investors, donor agencies, non government organisations are interested in the transparency of government plans to deal with a host of matters pertaining to policies and inducements regarding taxation, special incentives and so on. If these issues are clearly stated in the next budget with allocation of funds from the state coffer as well as anticipated availability of funds from external sources/ development partners, people interested in blue economy will be in a position to visualise government plans. More importantly, this will open up deliberations on the subject by experts at home and abroad. So, keeping the importance of this in view, it is also important for the relevant authorities in consultation with the experts to draw a road map to be implemented in phases.
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