Daily Times

The global communities recognise the importance of oceans because more than three billion people around the globe benefit from marine for their livelihood (directly or indirectly). It also generates employment for more than 200 million and the estimated market value of the marine economy is about US $3 trillion per year. From the environmental perspective, oceans absorb about 30 per cent of carbon dioxide produced by humans to soften the impact of global warming.

The geographical location of Pakistan–1,047 kilometres coastal area and 290,058 square kilometres seawater in the Indian Ocean–gives an opportunity to explore the potential benefit from the blue economy. But currently, Pakistan is not potentially benefiting from the ocean ecosystem in comparison with other coastal South Asian countries. The maritime revenue (transhipping) of Bangladesh and India is US $6 and US $5.6 billion respectively while that of Pakistan stands at US $183 million.

Its blue economy encompasses many activities, such as shipping, ports, seafaring, fishing, aquaculture, shipbreaking, coastal tourism and offshore basins. The blue economy is currently operating at less than the potential level. When a sector of the economy is functioning far below the potential level, the policy measure to uplift that sector might result in increased economic growth. This would, in turn, result in softening of the poverty level and unemployment.

The development of the blue economy is gaining importance because seven out of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are directly linked with the ocean ecosystem. For this purpose, the government needs to design short-term and long-term policies related to maritime affairs with a collaboration of relevant stakeholders.

Seven out of 17 Sustainable Development Goals are directly linked with the ocean ecosystem

The current export volume of Pakistan’s fishery industry is US $351 million while the potential worth of exports is about US $2 billion. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the total fish production of Pakistan from all sources (inland, marine and aquaculture) in 2018 was 771,608 tonnes, which accounted for only 3.7 per cent of the combined production of India and Bangladesh. The fish export of Bangladesh and India is 10-folds and 26-fold higher than the fish export of Pakistan.

According to the review of maritime transport 2019, the shipbreaking sector shows satisfactory performance with a 21.5 per cent share in the demolition of vessels worldwide. The current position of revenue from shipbreaking is also less than the potential. The shipbreaking yard in Gadani has the potential to generate US $3 billion annually, but currently, it stands at US $100 million.

The maritime study forum claims that the coastal tourism of Pakistan accounts for US $50,000 currently while the potential touches about US $5 billion. Moreover, the volume of the tourism industry of South Asia is US $31 billion and Pakistan accounts for only one per cent.

Pakistan needs to increase the number of local vessels because currently, 12 vessels are being operated by Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC). While the spending of Pakistan on the seaborne trade in terms of freight charges on foreign vessels is US $3.5 billion. However, an increase in local vessels may soften the pressure on the balance of payment account, which, in turn, increases the foreign reserves.

It needs to increase the fish vessels to increase the supply of fish because currently, there are 10,053 fishing vessels in Pakistan while that in Bangladesh is six-folds higher. The adoption of modern technology for sustainable aquaculture is also mandatory to increase the supply of fish. Sustainable aquaculture should be under the Sustainable Aquaculture Guidelines (SAG), proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The maritime sector of an economy is a financially and technologically intensive sector. Therefore, reallocation of resources required to extract the potential benefit from the blue economy by restructuring and improving the existing infrastructure. Moreover, policies promoting research and development is required to extract sustainable energy from marine like tidal energy.

In general, tourists are attracted by mangroves, climate, sandy beaches and enormous bio-diversity. But Pakistan is unable to fully cash in the potential of tourism even in the presence of these attributes. However, the potential benefit can be extracted by improving the infrastructure, the presence of financial institutions, cheap and secured transportation, recreational spots of international standards, and softening the visa policy. The government needs to ensure the implementation of the Treaty of Basel Convention to protect human health and the environment as well as to achieve the 98 per cent recycling rate in shipbreaking.

The writer is a lecturer at Minhaj University, Lahore. He can be reached at waqas.eco@mul.edu.pk.