Toward a Blue Economy: A Pathway for Sustainable Growth in Bangladesh

This report aims to synthesize current theory and practice of the blue economy concept to govern economic activity linked to the ocean, and to provide a framework for the Government of Bangladesh to analyze its potential. With the peaceful resolution of maritime boundary disputes with its neighbors in 2012 and 2014, the Government has recently defined the ocean space under its jurisdiction. The country’s sovereign ocean area is now on par with its land area, and if the 32 percent of the country’s terrestrial area which is defined by interaction with the sea is included, blue spaces would exceed land. For this reason, the Government has prioritized the use of blue spaces as a key source of future growth. However, questions remain about how to embark on a policy planning process to achieve Bangladesh’s blue economy aspirations, including measures of the current economic uses of the ocean space, the identification of clear targets for sustainable growth of use of this space, and a policy pathway to get there.

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