BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

BLUE ECONOMY OF BANGLADESH

Author: Syeda Tanzia Sultana, Mohammad Jasim Uddin

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2020v41n2a2

ABSTRACT

To achieve the vision of being a maritime nation, Bangladesh has to realize its enormous potential in maritime domain since the settlement of maritime boundary delimitation disputes with Myanmar and India. Thus, blue economy is of high priority for Bangladesh. Against this backdrop, the paper aims to identify the priority sectors and major public actors of blue economy of Bangladesh. It also attempts to find out major guidelines for the country’s blue economy. With an analytical framework, the paper identifies four priority sectors for Bangladesh’s blue economy—exploration and exploitation of resources, advancing/expanding marine activities, protection of resources and technology acquisition. To facilitate the sectors, it analyzes the roles of some specific groups of major public actors for Bangladesh’s blue economy. It also provides some possible options for the future of the country’s blue economy. These includes making a comprehensive multi-sectoral national blue economy policy, adopting national maritime strategy and legal frameworks, maintaining institutional harmonization, formulating a Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), survey of sea resources, building marine technological capacity, providing standard maritime education, research and development, allocating adequate public and private funds, attracting foreign investments and maintaining cooperation among littoral states in regional and global platforms through pursuing maritime diplomacy.