BOP President Highlights Potential of Blue Economy to Meet Pakistan's External Account Challenges - Press Release issued by The Bank of Punjab.

Islamabad -- September 30, 2022 (PPI-OT)

Following is the text of press release issued by The Bank of Punjab

Quote

The launch ceremony of the report 'Pathways to a Sustainable Blue Economy: Role of Financial Institutions', organized jointly by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and the Bank of Punjab (BOP), was recently held in Islamabad.

It featured a round-table discussion that was led by Zafar Masud - President and CEO, BOP, and Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri - Executive Director, SDPI. Zafar Masud stated that the enormous potential of the Blue Economy to contribute toward economic growth and improvements in livelihoods had not been fully realized by the policymakers of Pakistan and across the world.

He added that the maritime sector provided a significant opportunity to meet the external financing requirement in the short to medium term by raising funding through Green and Blue bonds on extremely attractive terms (vis-AA -vis plain vanilla offering of Sukuks and Eurobonds), enhancing fish exports, offering coastal tourism, etc.

The global sustainable bond market is estimated to be around US$ 1 trillion; China and India have taken the lead in terms of issuance of global sustainable bonds with over US$ 12 billion raised by each of them hitherto, whereas in India, the corporate sector raised nearly US$ 10 billion through ESG and Green bonds in 2021, he added.

Zafar added that while Pakistan tasted success in its first green bond issuance in 2021, there was a need to develop a larger pipeline by identifying green assets and scaling up capacity to meet international standards. Climate change and over-exploitation of our blue natural resources are extracting significant costs in terms of loss to marine biodiversity, he stressed.

He further said that the recent flooding could also be mitigated with proper and focused infrastructure investment in this area, and that the livelihoods of communities dependent on the blue resources were also being impacted, leading to rising unemployment and poverty. Blue economy contributes 0.45% to GDP which is $ 1 billion, he said, adding that Pakistan's maritime sector is confronted with governance issues, lack of technology, marine pollution, and destruction of mangroves.

He pointed out that $5 billion can be generated annually through coastal and marine tourism. Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri - Executive Director, SDPI, said that the blue economy had immense untapped potential which required out-of-the-box...

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