By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: National Institute of Maritime Affairs (NIMA) organized an interactive webinar on an important current topic “Revised Merchant Marine Policy and Long-Term Financing for Shipping Sector†today. Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah NI(M), former Chief of the Naval Staff graced the occasion as a Chief Guest while the eminent speakers included Vice Admiral (Retd) Iftikhar Rao HI(M) former MD KS&EW; Khurrum Mirza, Executive Director PNSC; Naeem Sarfaraz Chairman Maritime Committee FPCCI shared their intellectual insights with the audience.
Cdre (Retd) Baber Bilal Haider, Director National Institute of Maritime Affairs, started the proceedings of the webinar with the recitation of Holy Quran. After the recitation, the Director introduced the distinguished panellists and the Chief Guest to the participants.
Vice Admiral (Retd) Abdul Aleem HI(M) welcomed the worthy speakers and participants in the webinar. He highlighted the significance of shipping industry as an indicator for the health of a country’s economy and also shared the practical aspects of the maritime issues from his versatile experience in maritime sector.
Senior Researcher NIMA Kanwar Javed set the stage by highlighting an enormous potential for growth of the shipping industry of Pakistan, which needs to be harnessed through enabling policies, processes and regulatory framework. He further highlighted the significance of Pakistan Merchant Marine Policy 2001, its recent amendments, and the State Bank’s long-term financing rules for the Shipping Sector, in terms of its effects to the public and the private sector at large.
While speaking with the audience, Vice Admiral Iftikhar Rao shared rationales and impact of the recent amendments in Pakistan’s Merchant Marine Policy 2001 so far attained for shipping sector of Pakistan. He said that there is a need to make more efforts to have a real impact and accrue maximum benefits for the national economy through exploitation of all elements of Blue Economy in a planned and synergetic way.
Khurram Mirza shared his insights from his practical experience of PNSC on recent amendments in the revised merchant marine policy. He argued that Pakistan should adopt flexible policies, which encourage ship owners particularly foreign ship owners in order to compete with other national registers. He further added that Long Term Finance Facility (LTTF) under State Bank of Pakistan will further result in interest rate reduction, overall financial cost reduction, which is the utmost requirement for capital intensive shipping industry.
Naeem Sarfaraz emphasized on pivotal role of private ships for a successful shipping sector of any country. He urged that the policy needs major revisions and its implementation includes a revised Shipping Act and new version of the policy. He further asserted that the period stipulated for the policy till 2030 is insufficient and should be extended to 2050.
At the end of the webinar, the Chief Guest Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah NI (M) applauded the efforts put in by NIMA for bringing together experts from industry and academicians to highlight this issue, its different prospects and provided solutions on this very sector of economy of Pakistan. He also hoped that NIMA will keep on playing its significant role in advocating local and regional issues to raise awareness and provide policy recommendations to the policy makers in the country. Large number of attendees from academia, foreign policy experts, university students, government departments, and think tanks actively participated in the webinar.
