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Time to build capacity

Roundtable suggests govt to build on maritime verdict against Myanmar

Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh has to develop its own human resources and technologies to best utilise the marine resources, experts said yesterday, congratulating the government for the victory over maritime disputes with Myanmar.
The country will get not only oil, gas and fish but also precious mineral resources like copper and aluminium and can also generate power using the sea tides and waves, they observed.
The suggestions came at a discussion titled "Victory at the Sea: Potentials and Responsibilities" organised by leading Bangla daily Prothom Alo at its conferenceroom.
Ending a 38-year dispute with neighbouring Myanmar, Bangladesh on March 14 won a landmark victory at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) that gave Bangladesh 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic and territorial rights in the BayofBengal.
It also gave Bangladesh a substantial share of the outer continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles and a full 12-mile territorial sea around the St Martin's Island.
Following the verdict that was based on equitable share, Bangladesh is set to get another verdict over a maritime boundary dispute with another neighbour India, speakers said.
"This is a grand achievement," said AA Ziauddin Ahmed, chairman of the National Oceanography and Maritime Institute (NOAMI), who regretted that there is no course on oceanography at the country's universities.
Surveying the sea is crucial to learn about its resources first; then comes the issue of exploring them,
he said. Generating energy from the sea tides and waves is very much feasible. Once it is done, there will be no dearth of power, he noted.
"However, unless we have our own expertise, we can-not explore these resources," Ziauddin Ahmed said, putting emphasis on science education and oceanography studies at home.
Former navy chief MH Khan said, "Nothing can happen unless there is a combination of technology and political will."
He regretted that the previous governments had not paid adequate attention to settle the maritime disputes or explore the marine resources.
Khan said Bangladesh should not go for a bilateral settlement of the dispute over maritime boundary with India, which previously did not agree to equitable share, but equitable distance.
Prof Anu Muhammad of economics at Jahangirnagar University said the latest verdict reflects that Bangladesh can achieve something if it wants, but there is a general inferiority on the country's national capacity.
"Now that we gained legal sovereignty on our maritime territory, we have to have sovereignty on its resources," he said. The resources in the Bay are to be used not only for the present
generation but also for the future, he added.
This victory, however, could turn a farce if the authorities lease out the oil and gas blocks of the sea to foreign companies, Prof Anu Muhammad said, suggesting that the country should seriously plan to strengthen Petrobangla, even by hiring Bangladeshi experts working abroad.
The Bay is a strategic place for the western forces, who could come here in the name of security. "Allowing them here would never yield anything good," he noted.
Md Khurshed Alam, additional secretary to the foreign ministry, presented various aspects of how the government went to the ITLOS and won the battle.
He said some people were unknowingly commenting that Myanmar had got five gas oil blocks. Bangladesh's earlier claim of having 28 blocks was not based on any law. Now that Bangladesh got sovereignty on 200 nautical miles and continental shelf beyond, it is much more than that of mere 28 blocks, he said.
Law Commission Chairman Shah Alam, Prof Badrul Imam of geology at Dhaka University and Prof Habibur Rahman of law at Rajshahi University also spoke at the discussion moderated by Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman and Joint Editor Abdul Quayum.