No guarantee that the government will not squander the sea resources

It is an encouraging piece of news that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have expressed their interest in investing at least $10 billion through bonds over the next 10 years in Bangladesh to tap into the vast resources of the Bay of Bengal.
Recently these two international organisations sent a report to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Planning Ministry expressing their interest also to invest in developing various city corporations and municipalities, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC). Moreover, they want to invest money on various projects in the service sector through promising private sector bonds.
As a country of limited resources, Bangladesh cannot and should not ignore this kind of help from these international financial lenders if it wants to tap its potentials especially regarding its sea resources. Despite the fact that Bangladesh has huge economic prospects in its sea territory, the country is way behind in exploring its maritime wealth.
Maritime experts say that Bangladesh can earn USD 1 billion a year from the sea. There is no doubt that Bangladesh needs improvements in science, technology and innovation to explore all the possibilities in sea. To advance the country’s economy, utilisation of its sea resources is absolutely necessary, but this corrupt government is not trusted to handle these resources. Because of its wrong economic policy and massive corruption in the last decade, the government has turned the country’s bright economic prospect into its present nightmare.
Bangladesh’s area of the sea was settled long ago, first with Myanmar in 2012 followed by a sea area dispute with India in 2014. But all these years have elapsed without taking any serious measures to harness the sea potentials. To get the maximum benefit from our seabed, it is necessary to develop our own professional manpower and build up enough technological bases to explore the sea on our own in future.
It needs financial as well as technological help from outside sources to tap its sea potentials and we welcome ADB and the IFC for extending the offer of help; but we are equally concerned that as this government is an unelected one and does not feel accountable to people, it may squander not just the help but also the country’s sea resources as well.
The Bangladesh Power Development Board’s (BPDB) power purchase deal with India’s Adani Power Limited is ample proof of how the present government can sacrifice the national interest to remain in power. When people in general now have lost their trust in this government so much that they do not find it safe to keep their money in banks, it is better that the country’s seas resources remain untouched by the government.