‘Blue economy will enhance exports’

KARACHI: Discussing about Pakistan’s blue economy & maritime, unfortunately this area has not been addressed in the past. Like agriculture, manufacturing industry, mineral / mining, Information Technology this sector has to be given ‘Priority’ for boosting the economy and especially the exports, said Ateeq ur Rehman (economic & financial analyst).

With this, blue economy and the maritime education not only to the students but also to the relevant maritime sector is very important and significant. Department of maritime Sciences, Bahria University Karachi is doing wonderful job by not only conducting degree programmes for the department but also short certificate / diploma courses for the maritime industry.

Enhancing maritime education and maritime expertise for fostering growth in the maritime sector across the country is pivotal. There is a dire need for killed professionals in maritime sectors. Private Sector can contribute by investing in training and education to build a skilled workforce. Overall, the private sector is vital to advancing Pakistan’s maritime industry, bringing in investment, technological innovation, and operational efficiency. The synergy between public policies and private sector initiatives will be a key to unlocking the full potential of the “Maritime Economy in Pakistan,” said Ateeq.

For the modernization of blue economy and maritime industry, the main challenge for us is the effective investment in the infrastructure of our ports. By inviting land locked countries to use facilities at our ports for their import / export consignments is great encouraging news for which we have to further develop not only our infrastructures needs but also the mechanism and technology at the Port. Significant work has been done on it but it requires more collaboration from multilateral and bilateral investors as Foreign Direct Investment. As a part of our Foreign Trade and in order to achieve tremendous growth of Exports we have to increase our share in the Global Blue Economy especially by Fisheries / Sea Food. We have a big Coast line but our Fish Resources are declining in the marine areas of Pakistan.

In reality more than 80% of fish stock has already been lost the necessity of sustainable practices to prevent over-fishing and potential to ensure the recovery of fish stocks needed.