Coastal areas of Bangladesh & it’s resources: Immense possibilities for the country & it’s people - Behroz Newaz Khan

           Coastal areas of Bangladesh & it’s resources

I hear from many people saying that Bangladesh is a very poor country because it doesn’t have enough natural resources like oil, coal, natural gas, gold mine, diamond etc. As we don’t have enough or sufficient oil in our country; we have to buy it from the other countries. So, many people regret that we are not counted in the petrodollar earning countries. I say there is nothing to regret about petrodollar, because we have more expensive and valuable things than oil. And one of those valuable things is Shrimp, which is a very popular sea-food throughout the world. If we get to know the hidden authenticity of this we can realize the value of Shrimp. Today international price of 1 litre refined petrol is 1.2 US$ which is nearly 100 taka in Bangladeshi currency. But 1 kg of raw Shrimps cost 800 taka which is nearly 10 US$. So we can easily realize that without being processed only the raw Shrimps are 10 times more expensive than the refined oil. So, why we regret for petrodollar? We should be proud of our shrimp dollar. Because in today’s market every year we can sell nearly 1 lakh 50 thousands metric tons of Shrimp to other countries. And we can earn more than 1.5 billion US$ every year by selling processed Shrimps.

 In the coastal areas like Cox’s Bazar, Teknaf, Kutubdia, Bhola, Patuakhali, Barguna etc we can grow shrimps very easily. Because the weather and condition of water & soil in these places are very suitable for growing Shrimps. So the Govt. along with the private sectors should come forward & take necessary steps to promote prawn culture & earn foreign currency for our country.

Another valuable resource we have is the longest beach of the world, which is situated in Cox’s Bazar. In Cox’s Bazar beach we can take 3 kinds of baths. We can say them 3 S ---- which means Sea bath, Sun bath & Sand bath. The tourists always enjoy having a bath in sea. But in our beach we can provide 3 types of bath including the sand bath which is becoming popular day by day. Another thing is that we can’t take sand bath in every beach because in order to have a proper sand bath the sands should contain the minerals & some necessary elements which are very much available in our beach. So it's a benefit for us because sand bath is very useful for our health as it kills the germs of our body. Sometimes it cures the skin diseases too.

Besides the Govt. can build a particular zone in the beach for the foreigners, where they can enter by paying a good amount of money. The authority can arrange beach-volleyball, parachute jumping, surfing, riding sea bikes & speed boats etc for the foreigners who love ADVENTURE. By taking these kind of steps the Govt. can earn more than 10 million US$ in a year only in the tourism sector. So the Govt. should think about it.

Moreover the minerals like Garnet, Rutile, Zircon, Magnetite, Ilmenite, Thorium etc are in plenty at our beach. These minerals are very valuable in the international market. The Rutile is used for making aircraft body, Zircon is used for making artificial diamonds & the other minerals are also used in various kind of useful purpose.

One more thing is that if we go through the map of south Asia, we will see that Northeast India, Bhutan, Nepal and parts of Southern China & Myanmar are totally landlocked. So Bangladesh is seen as crucial to the economic development of these areas. Our port city is already very busy with the stuff & goods of these several countries. So if we build deep sea port at Sonadia Island. The trade & commerce of Bangladesh will go to an extent level which will bring the prosperity for the country & it’s people. 

So our fate is in our hand, we should make the best use of our resources & go ahead with integrity & perseverance, so that our country can prosper & go out from the circle of  poverty.

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By

Behroz Newaz Khan