'Govt to explore newly owned maritime areas in next five years'

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said her government has given importance on blue economy and under the policy the government would start exploring newly owned maritime areas within five years. 

The prime minister said this while inaugurating the National Fisheries Week-2016 at a function at Krishibid Institute auditorium at Farmgate here. 

Bangladesh's wining in a legal fight with Myanmar and India to establish ownership on a large size of maritime areas in the Bay of Bengal is a storage of huge mineral and fisheries resources. 

As the country has very least experience in exploration of maritime resources including fisheries, the government has procured a maritime survey ship and is taking other necessary steps for extracting the resources, she said. 

"We're afraid of losing the sea resources in the newly owned maritime areas if we fail to start their extraction within next five years. So we want to take quick steps in this regard," she said. 

Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Saidul Haque presided over the function organized by the ministry while secretary of the ministry Maksudul Hasan Khan and Director General of the Department of Fisheries Arif Azad also spoke on the occasion. 

The national fisheries week-2016 is being observed from July 19 to 25 with the slogan "Jaal achhey jekhane, Machh Chash Sekhane" (Wherever there is a water body, Cultivate Fishery).

The Prime Minister said Bangladesh is a land of plenty of rivers, canals, ponds and water bodies. So, a little initiative can make it possible to bring revolution in pisciculture. In this way culturists can meet their own demand and bring financial benefit for them as well. 

Sheikh Hssina said her government has attached highest importance to fisheries sector as part of her government policy to produce quality food as prescribed by the World Food Organization. 

The Prime Minister distributed medals among 20 individuals, organization and officials of the fisheries department for their outstanding contribution to development of fisheries sector. Out of them five were given gold medals and Taka 50,000 each and 15 were given silver medals and Taka 30,000 each.

The Prime Minister said fish processing industries can also be a lucrative one in the country as number of the families where husband and wife both doing job, are increasing and they like to get readymade and packaged food items after coming back to home from their work.

She said educated youths individually or jointly can also engage them with fish cultivation taking collateral free loan from the Karmasangsthan Bank. The government has established an institute to give them necessary training on pisci-culture, she said.

Sheikh Hasina said Bengali people naturally are fond of rice and sweet water fish. So, Bangladesh now is the fourth highest sweet water fish producing country in the world. However, given the large number of water bodies and ponds, Bangladesh can easily be first in fish cultivation if we try.

The Prime Minister said around 1.82 crore people of Bangladesh are now involve with the fish cultivation and business. Around 24 percent of our agricultural production comes from this sector which contributes about 4 percent in the gross domestic product. 

Sixty percent of country's total demand of animal protein comes from the fishery sector; she said adding that additional fish production might help meet the rest of the protein demand of the people. 

Pointing out the steps taken by her government after coming to power in 1996, the prime minister said steps had been taken for protecting the resource, increasing production and promotion of fish processing as well for increasing export.

At that time, she said, shrimp export to European country was cancelled during BNP regime due to malpractice of some unscrupulous exporters. They adopted many unfair means to increase the weight of the fishes, enraging them stop shrimp import from Bangladesh.

But after taking office in 1996 the Awami League government had taken pragmatic measures for quality production, processing and packaging of the shrimp which ultimately motivated the EU countries to lift the ban. The then government allocated Taka 40 crore for making the process standard, she said.

The Awami League government first framed a policy for fish cultivation in which stresses were given to protecting environment, preservation of the bio-diversity, management of the fish cultivation in the haor areas and cultivation of fisheries in water bodies and development of fish sanctuaries under cooperatives in the floodplain areas, she said.

In this regard the prime minster urged all to remain careful about the standard of the exporting goods; saying the government has set up labs in Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna to access the quality of the exporting goods particularly fishes.

"You should be careful so that a little aptitude for money doesn't bring any shame for the nation and the country," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said the government has taken initiative to distribute good quality fry up to upazila level. But, in many places importance is not being given to good-quality fry, she said urging the officials of the department to look into the matter properly.

Sheikh Hasina also urged them to strictly execute the government decision disallowing catching 'jhatka' (Hilsha Fry) for four prescribed months. The ban on jhatka fishing contributed to increase Hilsha production in the country as well as grow the delicious species bigger, she said.

Later, the Prime Minister released fish fries in the Gonobhaban Lake and inaugurated programmes of the fisheries week.

Source: BSS