Ahsan calls for harnessing untapped potential of maritime sector

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Monday formally inaugurated a four-day Pakistan International Maritime Expo and Conference (PIMEC) 2025 at the Karachi Expo Centre.

Officials said the inaugural ceremony was attended by Minister of Transport and Logistic Services of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia His Excellency Engineer Saleh bin Nasser Aljasser, Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori, Balochistan Governor Jaffar Khan Mandokhel, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf NI (M) and others.

Addressing the ceremony, the federal minister said Pakistan was blessed with a 1,050 kilometre coastline, exclusive economic zone of nearly 290,000 square kilometres and vast offshore potential in renewable energy, fisheries and mineral resources.

He said that despite these advantages, the maritime sector currently contributed less than 1 per cent to GDP, compared to 4 to 7 per cent in many maritime nations. This gap represented untapped opportunity and a strategic imperative for national development, he added.

Terming Pakistan a natural maritime bridge between the East and the West, Iqbal said Pakistan had a unique geographic position as it was where South Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa converged.

He said that according to the UNCTAD 2024, over 80 per cent of global trade by volume and 70 per cent by value was carried out by sea. “The global Blue Economy today contributes more than $2.5 trillion annually to world GDP, and sustains over 350 million jobs across shipping, ports, fisheries, energy, coastal tourism and emerging marine industries,” he said.

If Blue Economy were a nation, it would be the seventh largest economy in the world, he said.

He said oceans had re-emerged as the highways of global commerce, energy, and communication and nations that harnessed them wisely were shaping the future of economic power. The PIMEC was not just an event as it was a movement to reimagine Pakistan’s economic destiny from the land to the sea, he added.