Policy interventions for the development of the blue economy in Bangladesh

Between 2012 and 2014, disputes over maritime boundary with Myanmar and India were favorably settled for Bangladesh, resulting in the expansion of its territorial waters of more than 30% and the country received entitlement to 118,813 km² in the Bay of Bengal. This achievement offers a wide range of new economic opportunities for jobs & growth around marine and coastal sectors such as marine fisheries, marine aquaculture, tourism, exploitation of natural resources, trade and energy. This created new opportunities to exploited the untapped potential of these waters. The challenge will be to develop smart and sustainable solutions to meet the economics needs of Bangladesh in this area. This paper presents the policy interventions that will contribute to impulse the development of the Blue Economy in Bangladesh. This was accomplished through an analysis of the institutional, commercial and environmental context of a set of selected sectors and the identification of the major areas of policy intervention in a near future. The analysis reflects therefore the point of view of all key stakeholders including practitioners, entrepreneurs, researchers, academics and representatives of the civil society.