“It’s a very inspiring concept,” head of its delegation in Dhaka Ambassador Pierre Mayaudon said on Wednesday.
“We are still in the exploratory phase. But definitely we are working on it,” he said replying to a question at a media briefing.
The press briefing was organised for the visiting Euro Parliament member Jean Lambert.
Lambert during her five-day visit to attend the apparel summit had been to Chittagong for a day to discuss the new concept with the stakeholders.
“Already we tried to understand where the potential is and how EU could be a partner with Bangladesh to make these potentials translate into realities…
“(This means) job creation, preservation of the environment taking best possible advantage of the resources,” the ambassador said.
“We are open to discussion with the government, private sector, NGOs and with all stakeholders who work on expansion of the blue economies,” Mayaudon said.
Bangladesh took interest in pursuing blue economy after it has settled maritime boundary disputes with neighbouring India and Myanmar.
Sovereign rights have been established on more than 118,000 square kilometres of maritime territory, 200 nautical miles (NM) of exclusive economic zone, and 354 NM of continental shelf after positive verdicts in international courts.
It has raised hopes of extracting “plenty of resources” from the Bay of Bengal, considered by Bangladesh as its “third neighbour”.
But Dhaka lacks expertise and technology to exploit the resources, which has promoted the government to seek partnerships.
Bangladesh hosted a workshop on blue economy this year for the first time, bringing together more than 30 experts and representatives of 20 countries.
Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali at the workshop had sought ‘Bay of Bengal partnership’ for sustainable economic growth.
The EU head of delegation said they were running some projects that could be related to blue economy and referred to the training programmes in ship-building yards, among others.
Mayaudon said this training programme would be expanded as the new seven-year development assistance plan for Bangladesh would emphasise education and skills development among its three key sectors.
The envoy further said some of the EU member states were also interested in the blue economy issue.
Source: bdnews24