ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a round table conference on ‘Blue Economy of Pakistan’ Thursday underlined the need to chalk out maritime policy that should not only be limited to security horizon, but also connect Pakistan Geo-economically as per the modern trends.
The conference was organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) which deliberated at length as to how this could be moulded in national life, and benefit from its vibrancy at home and abroad, said a press release.
The speakers were Rear Admiral Syed Faisal Ali, Ambassador Nadeem Riaz, Commodore Babar Bilal, Dr Nazir Hussain, Faheem Sardar, Dr Shabana Fayyaz, Dr Mahmood Khalid, Reema Shaukat, Urooj Raza and Naufil Shahrukh.
The discussion was part of the Grand Dialogue that IPRI had initiated to create a nexus between the stakeholders and the policy-makers to foment a strategy, accordingly.
The learned panel believed that it was time to balance the Geo-strategic compulsions on land and water, and formulate policies that are specifically ordained and date-centric.
In an era of Geo-economics, the potential of Blue Economy could not be ignored, nor could it be limited to maritime activity in the security horizons.
The speakers stressed over the fact that an integrated maritime and business-centric ecological knitted policy is need of the day. The areas of interest could be marine sports, festivals, home-economics of locals, ferry services and last not least the rich sea catch.