The Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised a round table meeting on ‘Prospects of Blue Economy in Bangladesh’ on 30 July (Saturday) morning on an online platform. This discussion was organised with the initiative of the CCCI Research Development Training Sub-Committee to identify opportunities and increase investment in various sectors of the Blue Economy in Bangladesh.
Chittagong Chamber President Mahbubul Alam delivered the welcome address on the occasion. Chittagong Port Authority Member (Administration and Planning) Md. Zafar Alam presented the main essay. Former Navy Chief and First Vice President of Bangladesh Marine Fisheries Association (BMFA) Vice Admiral (Retd.) Zahirul Uddin Ahmed, President of Cox’s Bazar Chamber of Commerce and Industry Abu Morshed Chowdhury (Khoka), Chittagong Chamber Senior Vice-President Tarafdar Md. Ruhul Amin, Chairman and Managing Director of Karnaphuli Ship Builders Limited Engineer Abdur Rashid, Chairman of Reliance Shipping and Logistics Limited Mohammad Rashed, Managing Director of Prantik Group Engineer Md. Golam Sarwar, KSRM Group Deputy Managing Director and Chamber Director Md. Shahriar Jahan spoke as panelists. CCCI Research Development Training Sub-Committee Director In-Charge Engineer Iftekhar Hossain and Convener Md. Salahuddin Yusuf, The Business Standard’s Chittagong Bureau Chief Shamsuddin Illius, and Dainik Banik Barta’s Chittagong Bureau Chief Rashed H Chowdhury also spoke.
Among others, Chamber Vice President Syed Mohammad Tanvir, Director Md. Ahid Siraj Chowdhury (Swapan), Anjan Shekhar Dash, Md. Omar Farooq, Md. Iftekhar Faisal, Mohammad Adnanul Islam, Tanveer Mostafa Chowdhury, Sub-Committee Joint Convener Engineer SM Shahidul Alam, members Akib Kamal, Arif Iftekhar Mahmud, and Md. Abu Horaira and others participated in the round table meeting.
Chamber president Mahbubul Alam said that coastal areas about 710 km long and 1 lac 18 thousand and 813 square kilometres of vast waters full of diversity and resources make Bangladesh’s Blue Economy very promising. Most of these potentials are still untapped and realising this our government has included a specific chapter in Vision 2041 called ‘Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2021-2041 (PP 2041) on Blue Economy’. To this end, policies and strategic frameworks are essential to encourage private sector investment through appropriate incentives and legislation.
Chittagong Port Authority Member (Administration and Planning) Md. Zafar Alam presented the main essay in the meeting mentioning various aspects of the Blue Economy and presented some recommendations. These include: The Chittagong Chamber may set up an R&D cell on Blue Economy, which will help identify feasible projects to achieve the goals of the 8th Five Year Plan. Also, this cell will explore the possibility of investment in the port and maritime supply chain with various sub-groups of port and shipping. Make recommendations to the government to modernise the current shipping policy with a view to expanding the Blue Economy. The Chamber can make recommendations to the Government on the formulation of private port policy through stakeholder engagement to promote maritime trade. Chamber can act as pressure groups for the construction of ICDs under PPP near the capital. Establishing road, sea, and rail connectivity from Bangabandhu Shilpa Nagar to Bay-Terminal and Matarbari Port and verifying the feasibility of constructing ICD near Chakria in Chattogram division, etc.
Vice Admiral (Retd.) Zahirul Uddin Ahmed, former Chief of Naval Staff and First Vice-President of Bangladesh Marine Fisheries Association (BMFA), said that developed countries including Singapore and America are moving forward by making use of the sea. We are not yet enthusiastic about investing in deep sea fishing despite the huge potential. Because no one is interested in investing in this sector due to a lack of sufficient information and research. Valuation is also not possible in the case of selling fish from the deep sea. Therefore, there is no significant research on the return of investment in any sector in this sector. Besides, although tuna fish is in global demand, we do not have enough information about it. As a result, despite the potential, investors are not interested in investing in the extraction of this fish.
Cox’s Bazar Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Abu Morshed Chowdhury (Khoka) recommended the development of coastal region-based multidimensional tourism, providing training for traders on on-boat fish preservation and organic dry fish processing, scientific salt production on the coastal line, providing alternative work for fishermen during bans, providing subsidy to small scale fishermen for fishing deeper than 60-70 nautical miles, formulation of sectoral policy and 3-5 year plan and introduction of the blue data bank and one-stop service point.
Chittagong Chamber Senior Vice President Tarafdar Md. Ruhul Amin said that about 95 billion dollars have gone out of Bangladesh in the last 10 years due to freight and other charges. Traders urgently need special funds from the government to exploit national and international waterways. Hence policies are also needed for financing investments in the Blue Economy. Bangladesh has 24 thousand kilometres of inland waterways. Bringing these waterways under navigation will reduce the pressure on road transport and save time and money. Not everything can be controlled by a single cell. For this, a ministry should be formed and given the power of magistracy to do the work. Bay-Terminal and Matarbari deep sea port are products of Blue Economy. But all the jobs of Bay Terminal and Matarbari deep sea port are being given to foreigners. If these works could be done through local investors then all the money would stay in the country. These issues are directly related to Blue Economy. We need to adopt 5-10 year priority projects to utilise the Blue Economy.
