Our Oceans and the Blue Economy: Opportunities and Challenges

The Blue Economy is envisaged as an integration of short & long term economic activities and development following principles of social inclusion, environmental sustainability and innovations considered and concentrated on and around the sea. The attitude of achieving long-term prosperity by a country or a region befitting the wellbeing of all citizens and the mankind preserving the environment, especially the sea is the basis of the Blue Economy. The concept of the Blue Economy, a systematic way of utilizing ocean resources, is quite new in South Asia and Bangladesh. This paper is an instigating one, not the findings of rigorous researches but prepared using information, data and works which are available somehow related to the topic and relevant to thoughts and activities in this region. The paper cites a few highlights on how the Blue Economy Concept fit into the sustainability framework does, while balancing its economic, social and environmental benefits and how does it contribute in GDP. The paper aims at generating thoughts and actions towards investigating various opportunities of the Blue Economy, ways of cashing the benefits as well as identifying challenges and ways of overcoming them. The paper concludes that Bangladesh as well as the south Asia has the potentials to follow the Blue Economy Concept. However it requires strong political willingness, commitments, which already have been demonstrated in Bangladesh. It needs rigorous researches and promoting social awareness.