‘Blue Economy: A shining economic future for Pakistan’

IPS and National Institute of Maritime Affairs (NIMA) collaborated with Dunya Forum to hold an online interactive session titled ‘Blue Economy: A shining economic future for Pakistan’ on April 6, 2021 with a view to highlight the importance of the subject issue for the country.

IPS on the occasion was represented by its GM Operations Naufil Shahrukh, Non-Resident Fellow Dr Maliha Zeba Khan and IPS Associate Syed Ikram-ul-Haq from Islamabad, whereas the other panelists Dr Nuzhat Khan, director general, National Institute of Oceanography, Commander Mohammad Akhtar, deputy director, NIMA, Naghmana Zafar, senior lecturer at NIMA, and Commander (r) Mohammad Kamran were partaking from Karachi. The session was also addressed via video link by Director NIMA Commodore (r) Ali Abbas, Executive Director Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) Khurram Mirza and Commodore (r) Syed Muhammad Obaidullah, former executive director, PNSC and founding director of National Centre for Maritime Policy Research (NCMPR).

The speakers were of the view that spreading awareness about maritime economic interests of Pakistan to all corners of the country is the need of hour, especially in the wake of CPEC which is set to turn around economic outlook of the country if implemented in letter and spirit. They warned that the issues like illegal fishing at sea and poor fishermen living in dilapidated condition along the coastal belt, if not addressed, can become a bottlenecks in the way of achieving desired fruits of blue economy for Pakistan.