05-01-2021

TueSDAY, JANuARY 5, 2021
2
Tanti League Dhaka Metropolitan North organized a seminar at National Music and Dance
Auditorium of Shilpa Academy in the capital on Saturday. Hamid Ahmed, President Tanti League,
Dhaka Metropolitan North presided over the seminar while SM Mosharraf Hossain, General
Secretary, Tanti League Dhaka Metropolitan North moderated the seminar. Dr. Abdus Sobhan
Golap, MP, Publicity and Publication Secretary of Bangladesh Awami League was present as the
chief guest.
Photo: Courtesy
Bangabandhu
The pathfinder to tap 'Blue
Economy' potential
>(From back page)
Following the foundation laid by the
Father of the Nation, Bangladesh is now
going to tap the marine potential by turning
the Bay of Bengal into a hub of economic
development to ensure the optimum
use of its maritime resources in
order to widen the country's economic
space.
Bangladesh settled maritime boundary
disputes with Myanmar in 2012 and with
India in 2014 through an arbitral
method. The newly- demarcated area of
the Bay of Bengal has opened a fresh economic
frontier for the country.
Experts claimed that fish alone has 500
varieties besides snails, shell-fish, crabs,
sharks, octopuses and other animals.
Bangladesh is estimated to catch only
0.70 million tons of fish every year out of
the total 8 million tons of fish available in
the Bay of Bengal.
Besides fish and other living animals,
Bangladesh could also have gas fields as it
is reported that Myanmar has discovered
a large gas field in its area of the sea.
Experts are of the view that Bangladesh
would be able to extract resources worth
about $1.2 billion from the ocean.
The experts observed that Bangladesh
should accelerate its efforts to harness
huge potentials of 'Blue Economy' to
attain double digit GDP growth as its
maritime territory is rich with huge precious
natural resources, living and nonliving.
They mentioned that contribution
of the vast maritime territory is only $9.6
billion or 6 percent annually to the
Bangladesh economy, but it has the
potential to contribute more to the economy
if the resources are exploited properly.
"There are a lot of opportunities in the
'Blue Economy'. We'll have to utilize the
resources under the water to boost the
economy," said noted economist and former
Bangladesh Bank governor
Mohammed Farashuddin.
Mentioning that the Bay of Bengal is
enriched with huge resources, he said
government needs planning to use these
resources to attain the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) as well as the
Vision-2041.
The economist urged the authorities
concerned to open a wing in planning
ministry or under the Prime Minister's
Office for speeding up the initiatives to
avail the opportunities of 'Blue Economy'.
In order to utilize its unexplored
marine resources, Bangladesh has
already taken initiatives to flourish its
'Blue Economy'. Since 2015, the government
has undertaken a number of consultations
and workshops on the issue.
In 2017, the government established
the "Blue Economy Cell' with the mandate
to coordinate 'Blue Economy' initiatives
across sectoral ministries.
The government is going to enact 'The
Marine Fisheries Act-2020' which will
replace 'The Marine Fisheries Ordinance-1983'.
Regarding different initiatives of the
government, Secretary (Maritime Affairs
Unit) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Rear Admiral M Khurshed Alam said 26
maritime economic functions have been
identified for development of 'Blue Economy'
in Bangladesh.
The sectors, he said, are: shipping,
coastal shipping, seaports, passenger ferry
services, inland waterway transport,
shipbuilding, ship recycling industries,
fishery, marine aquatic products, marine
biotechnology, oil and gas, sea salt production,
ocean renewable energy, blue
energy (osmosis) and biomass, aggregates
mining (sand, gravel and others),
marine genetic resource, coastal tourism,
recreational water sports, yachting and
marines, cruise tourism, coastal protection,
artificial islands, greening coastal
belt or delta planning, human resource,
maritime safety and surveillance and
maritime spatial planning (MSP).
Alam pointed out that full account in
each of these functions has been taken of
the value chains that are developed
across a range of sectors.
He said well-trained, skilled and educated
human resources are the driving
force of the development of an economy,
who can participate in the globalization
of business and the accompanying technological
revolution.
A thrust in blue economic growth may
come from a large army of skilled coastal
and offshore engineers, navigators, merchant
mariners, fisheries technologists,
biotechnologists and in a variety of other
professions, he added.
After winning the sea area, Alam said,
the present government is paying special
attention to create skilled human
resources for unleashing opportunities
from the 'Blue Economy'.
"Recently, the Bangladesh Oceanographic
Research Institute (BORI) and a
maritime university have been established
for coastal and oceanic research
and human resource development," he
added.
The role of marine resources in poverty
alleviation, acquiring autarky in food
productions, protecting environmental
balance, facing adverse impacts of climate
change and other economic possibilities
are unlimited, the experts opined.
But with the potentialities and possibilities,
they said, there are many challenges
in the field.
The experts said the challenges include
ensuring the sovereignty over the total
coastal area, maintaining the security
over the economic area, establishing
marine friendly infrastructure for marine
tourist, protecting the area from the
international smugglers and fish pirates,
maintaining investment friendly environment
in the awarded area, sustainable
use of biodiversity and maintaining
marine and coastal ecosystems.
Other challenges are preserving mangrove
and sea grass, addressing climate
change and managing carbon emission,
maintaining sea-level rise and change in
ecosystem and temperatures, solving
ocean acidification and blue carbon and
keeping the sea area free from pollution
and marine debris.
Law minister
files GD over
fake FB ID's
DHAKA : A general diary
(GD) was filed with the capital's
Gulshan Police Station
today seeking necessary
action against the people
who opened fake Facebook
accounts in the name of Law
Minister Anisul Huq.
A law ministry release in
this regard said the minister
has no account on the social
networking site.
"But a couple of fake
accounts were opened in his
name to disgrace him socially
and to achieve evil intentions,"
it added.
The law minister recently
came to know that people
are confused because friend
requests were sending from
these fake Facebook
accounts and filed the GD.
JMI brings final
version of first
Bangladeshi
KN95 mask
DHAKA : JMI has launched
the final version of its first
made in Bangladesh
KN95respiratorymask.
Earlier, the Anti-Corruption
Commission filed a case
against JMI for supplying
low-quality masks and personal
protective equipment
(PPE) to the government
amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
However, JMI Hospital
Requisite Manufacturing
Managing Director Md Abdur
Razzaq said, "The masks supplied
to the government earlier
were not supposed to be
distributed. They were mistakenly
sent. The production
of N95 masks was under
development at that time."
"However, the current ones
are the final products. Also,
this KN95 mask model will be
the cheapest one - cheaper
than made in China masks."
"We saw that many countries
started to make KN95
masks following the Covid-19
outbreak. Now Bangladesh's
JMI has launched it," Home
Minister Asaduzzaman Khan
Kamal said this on Monday at
the launching of "JMI respirator
sterile disposable face
mask" in the city.
Dahaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority
Date : 04-01-2021
Date : 04-01-2021
Iqvmv- R: Z: 493/2021
GD- 19/21 (5x 4)
GD- 16/21 (8x4)
Md. Shah Alam
Executive Engineer
Saidabad Water treatment Plant (OP)
Dhaka WASA