Abstract
Bangladesh, as a littoral state, has been a hub of maritime activities for centuries whereas the Bay of Bengal plays a pivotal role in our trade and commerce with the outside world. In the last decade before the onset of COVID-19, Bangladesh set her sails on a voyage of progress and prosperity. It was clearly acknowledged by the government of Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that the maritime development is indispensable for our country’s prosperity. In the blue economy sectors like ports & shipping to marine aquaculture, ship-building to ship recycling, hydrocarbon to marine bio-technology, maritime tourism to maritime education, in fact all the potential maritime sectors were being developed, nurtured, and rejuvenated in order to ensure proper utilisation of our maritime resources. However, the recent onslaught of pandemic Coronavirus has cast a shadow of pale and frustration in the progress of global civilization and predicts an uncertain economic gloom and downturn in the global trade and commerce. As such it has become essential that we try to ascertain the possible impact of the pandemic on this very important sector of blue economy and find ways to bounce back for the overall economic recovery. There is no denying the fact that the COVID-19 has further exacerbated challenges in the maritime sector as to how much resources the government should allocate for the blue economy in context of the looming economic disaster. In the overall prioritization of development budget, every sector is likely to contest for her share of the pie leading to a situation of perplex among the policy planners and bureaucrats. There is likely to be heavy strain on various development projects due to budget constraints arising out of Corona related stimulus budget for economic bale out of various affected sectors. But right measure of support from the international financial institutions and FDI from the friendly countries can help Bangladesh to sustain the big number of development projects which will keep the country on target to our national development agenda as per Vision 2041. However, the global research indicates that the countries giving priority on various maritime business, industries and ocean science have better prospects of economic recovery in post COVID-19 era. Under this backdrop, the study aims to provide some possible solutions for resilience and response to the impacts of COVID-19 on the blue economy of Bangladesh.