Academicians and practitioners at a discussion on Tuesday said that exploring untouched marine resources might open huge opportunities for Bangladesh.
Their remarks came at the launching ceremony of the Bangladesh chapter of Ocean Centres, an initiative hosted by the United Nations Global Compact and supported by the United Kingdom-based Lloyd鈥檚 Register Foundation.
Speakers at the event held at a city hotel said that challenges were there, but the opportunities were huge in the areas of fisheries, shipping, port, tourism and offshore renewable energy.
They said that good governance for sustainable and resilient ocean management, skilled manpower, safety, knowledge, advanced technology and investment were among the top challenges in this regard.
Fisheries and livestock adviser Farida Akhter as chief guest said that Bangladesh鈥檚 fishing was limited in the shallow water, while deep sea fishing had yet to start.
She said that only 30 per cent of the total domestic fish production came from sea, leaving most part of the sea fish resources unexplored as yet.
She also said that people spoke much about sea level rise due to climate change, but pollution was affecting sea more than climate.
Rear Admiral M Khurshed Alam presented the keynote on 鈥楤arriers to Bangladesh鈥檚 Blue Economy鈥檚 Sustainable Growth and Options鈥� when he remarked that due to poor fishing methods Bangladesh could not catch big fishes in the bay.
While globally 32 per cent of oil is extracted from offshore areas Bangladesh has a huge area unexplored, he said, noting that required capacity building would enable Bangladesh to utilise those opportunities.
Bangladesh Maritime University vice-chancellor Rear Admiral Khandakar Akhter Hossain, while speaking on the 鈥楾echnology and human resource development for a sustainable blue economic growth鈥� said that Bangladesh was actually producing humans not resources.
Ocean Centres Bangladesh country lead Commodore Mohammad Abdur Razzak said that the centre would be a multi-stakeholder platform to advance safety culture to promote a sustainable blue economy and marine conservation.
The initiative will foster locally-led solutions to the challenges that are to be found in each of the regions, he added.
鈥榃e want to facilitate sustainable ocean management as a locally-led global organisation,鈥� he said.
The Ocean Centres Bangladesh was launched as part of Ocean Centres having presence in six more countries in the Global South鈥擝razil, Ghana, Kenya, India, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Each centre, strategically located to address regional safety challenges, will play a vital role in fostering collaboration between governments, industry leaders and maritime communities.
Marine Fisheries Association president Enam Chowdhury, International Centre for Ocean Governance director Professor KM Azam Chowdhury, United Nations Global Compact Network Bangladesh executive director Shahamin S Zaman,聽 Lloyd鈥檚 Register Foundation director Alex Stitt,聽 Dhaka University Oceanographic professor Abu Hena Md Yusuf, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Professor Roksana Jaha, Elanor Renewable Energy Solution chairman Commodore Sharif Uddin Bhuiyan, among others, spoke at the event.
English language daily 抖阴精品, Bangla daily Ajker Patrika and private television channel Nagorik TV were the media partners of the event.