Cabinet Approves ‘National Shrimp Policy, 2014’

The approval came from the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan briefed reporters. With the implementation of this policy, he said, country's shrimp production will increase side by side with improvement of qualitative standard.

"It would help flourish the shrimp industry, raise employment opportunity, alleviate poverty, raise export earnings and meet up the nutrition demand of the people," he said. The cabinet secretary said that shrimp sector is very important in the country's socioeconomic context as about 1.50 crore people including women are employed in the sector with the shrimp export fetching Taka 3,376 crore in the last fiscal year.

Bhuiyan said that although the shrimp sector was included in the National Fisheries Policy in 1998, the concerned Ministry of Fisheries and livestock felt that the indicative guidelines regarding shrimp in that policy was inadequate while there is a need for a big and full-fledged policy regarding shrimp.

He said the main goals of The National Shrimp Policy, 2014 are maintaining environmental and ecological balance, protection of biodiversity, improvement of public health and nutrition, employment generation, empowerment of women, shrimp production, processing and marketing, export market expansion of shrimp and raising the overall economic growth.

He said that the policy has addressed all the issues, problems and prospects regarding shrimp.

Highlighting some features of the policy, the Cabinet Secretary said that in the policy, shrimp has been considered in holistic manner with the development of the shrimp industry, raising production, imparting training, expansion, quality control, protection of biodiversity, crop diversification, crop rotation, land zoning, crop zoning and research.

He said that the policy received cabinet nod following discussions with various ministries and divisions, experts, other stakeholders including owners of shrimp enclosures and hatcheries as well as holding workshops.

As per the policy, Bhuiyan said, the private sector will be the driving force in the shrimp sector while the government will act as the catalyst.

He said the cabinet was also apprised of the participation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the first ever Girl Summit held in London on July 21-23, 2014.

Besides, the participation of the Foreign Minister in the 17th session of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Ministerial Conference held at Algiers on May 28-29, 2014 and the participation of the Fisheries and Livestock Minister in the 31st Session of the COFI (Committee on Fisheries) held in Rome on June 9-13, 2014 were apprised.

Ministers and state ministers concerned attended the meeting, while secretaries concerned were present.

-Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)