Govt to give 12 deep-sea fishing licences: secretary
At least 12 new deep-sea fishing licences will be provided to trawler owners this year in a bid to fill the void Indian and Myanmarese fishermen capitalise on to make their catch inside Bangladesh's maritime area in the Bay of Bengal.
The existing 25 licence holders do not fish in the deep-sea, said Md Khurshed Alam, secretary to the foreign ministry's Maritime Affairs Unit.
Though it is possible to fish as far out as 660 kilometres from the shores, Bangladeshis go only up to 70km for a lack of required facilities, leading to underutilisation of immense potential, he said.
Addressing a luncheon meeting on challenges of realising the Blue Economy's opportunities in Bangladesh, Alam said, of the 8 million tonnes of fish caught in the bay in 2016, only 93,000 tonnes were by Bangladeshis.
Other countries including India and Myanmar were able to reach the farthest parts to catch the remaining fish, he told the event organised by the Bangladesh-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BMCCI) at The Westin Dhaka.
“We cannot tap the potential of maritime resources as we do not have adequate trawlers and manpower in this sector,” said Alam.
He sought more private sector investment which could simultaneously create millions of jobs and earn billions in foreign currency.
The 118,000 square kilometers of area in the bay should be used for economic purposes, Alam added.
Bangladesh's overseas trade (import and export) last year amounted to nearly $75 billion and over 90 percent of it was seaborne, for which $5 billion had to be paid in freight charges, he said. Bangladesh could have saved a lot of foreign currency, nearly 1 percent of the national GDP, had local ships carried the goods, he said.
He also recommended following in the footsteps of countries like Norway and Australia to adopt sea cage aquaculture to cultivate fish such as salmon.
Bangladesh is more interested in using river routes, he said, suggesting the use of more coastal shipping lines for easier and cheaper transportation of goods which could also have an impact on the prices of commodities.
Currently, all three ports in Chittagong, Mongla and Payra are connected to river routes while the country is yet to develop a much-needed deep-sea port, he said. Once the under-construction Matarbari port becomes operational, the crisis can be averted to some extent, he added.
Alam said he has been faced with a crisis of teachers at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Maritime University as Bangladesh has not developed adequate skilled manpower for this sector over the years.
The secretary said global maritime products and trade were worth $24 trillion and people could tap only $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion a year. “Bangladesh needs a sustainable blue economy authority and regulations on resource extraction to tap more maritime business potential,” said Syed Moazzem Hossain, president of the BMCCI, pointing out that the government has already invested $40 billion in developing the southern coastal areas.
Nur Ashikin Mohd Taib, Malaysian high commissioner to Bangladesh, said they have been producing food items and medicine using maritime resources and Bangladesh had the potential to do the same. Bangladesh needs to diversify exports, and maritime resources could be the real alternative to readymade garment, which accounts for 82 percent of national exports a year, she said.