Blue bonds: An ocean of possibilities

 

Before delving into the matter of bue bonde,
it 15 important to briefly understand the blue
economy" itself, the Blue economy is a term i
Economics which relates to the preservation
and exploration of the marine erivirOnIneTt
The World Bank states that the blue economy is
the sustainable use of ocean resources or the
economic growth, betterment of livelihoods,
jobs creation and the preservation of the ocean s
ecosystem. The blue economy may encompass
all economic activities related to the
Oceans, SaaS , and coasts, and it
may cover a broad range of
interconnected sectors
The concept of a blue
economy 1s an emerging
one and it is stressed
that the utilization of
Such resources should be
directly combined with
also the preservation of it
through better stewardship
of those "blue resources
The current value of the
the global blue economy is $2.5
trillion per annum. As mentioned above
although the blue economy encompasses a wide
variety of ocean-linked sectors and industries,
fisheries and aquaculture alone generate direct
or indirect employment for 10 percent to 12 per
cent of the global workforce with more than 90
percent of the employment created in developing
Countries. 

Recently, experts have stated that despite the huge potential, the opportunity to move the overall economy forward through the development of Bangladesh's blue economy is underutilized due to a lack of proper initiatives, measurements, and coordination. Bangladesh's 710-kilometer coastline extending from the tip of Saint Martin's Island in the southeast to the west coast of Satkhira and 121,110-square kilometer sea area has exceptionally varying ecosystems having major ecological and fiscal significance and advantageous possibilities. Fisheries, shipping, and coastal tourism are the traditional uses of coastal and ocean resources. Furthermore, there are new sectors like offshore gas exploration, salt production, and offshore renewable energy. The old and new sectors of ocean use have a high outlook of growth. Together with other ocean uses, the government has taken initiatives for major industrial expansion in the coastal regions including building a coal power plant, deep-sea port, and liquefied petroleum and natural gas terminal. A distance of 660 kilometers from the coastline is available to Bangladesh but its mechanized boats and industrial trawlers are capable of fishing going out only 70 kilometers. Thus, there is still a significant amount of sea fishing frontier that Bangladesh is yet to take enough advantage of.