C Raja Mohan, who is the head of strategic studies and distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, recently at a lecture in Dhaka had mooted the idea to form a trilateral group.
On Tuesday at a roundtable on ‘blue economy’, the idea also came up from the private sector who believed Bangladesh should have a “strategic partnership alliance” with India and Myanmar to exploit sea resources.
The suggestion came up as Bangladesh resolved the maritime dispute with the two neighbours “peacefully”.
Dhaka established its sovereign rights on more than 118,000 sq kms of territorial sea, 200 nautical miles (NM) of exclusive economic zone and 354 NM continental shelves from the Chittagong coast through international courts.
It gave hope of extracting “plenty of resources” beneath the Bay of Bengal that Bangladesh considers its “third neighbour”.
The Board of Investment (BOI) has organised the roundtable inviting both government and private sectors to sensitise them about the prospect of investing in the Bay.
Former President of apex business body, FBCCI, AK Azad, however, said private sector would need government support in this regard.
He particularly demanded loans with easy terms and conditions for investments.
The Shipping Secretary Syed Monjurul Islam believes a “short-term, mid-term and long-term” plan should be chalked out on how to use the Bay for economic activity.
“We need strategic alliance,” he also said, “as we lack knowledge and experience in this sector”.
The Prime Minister’s adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury stressed on raising awareness about the sea.
“We need to have comprehensive strategy,” he said.
He said private sector would not come forward if it was risky.
“We have to have surveys and research for their (private sector) risk mitigation,” he stressed.
The foreign minister Mahmood Ali also said that the maritime boundary dispute settlement came as “a big opportunity” for Bangladesh.
“We have to use this,” he said asking the opposition BNP that criticised the government after both the verdicts, to support “the successes”.
BNP after Bangladesh’s victory over Myanmar in 2012 first praised the government, but later said it was “a big deception”.
After the issue was resolved with India, BNP also said the government was staging “a drama”.
According to the government estimates, about 30 million people directly depend on oceanic economic activities like fisheries and commercial transportation for their livelihood in Bangladesh.