The fishing industry or aqua culture plays an important role in Pakistan’s economy and employs more than 500,000 fisherman directly, whereas, 1 million people are employed in ancillary industries. Moreover, there are around 20,000 fishing boats in the coastal areas of Pakistan which operate in shallow waters as well as in offshore areas. However, the capacity that Pakistan has is more than 500 million dollars. Moving forward our shipbreaking industry has suffered the same fate as well. In the 1970s Gadani was considered one of the most efficient shipyards which took only two or three weeks to breakdown a ship, the same ship however took almost couple of months to be broken down in Bangladesh and India. Unfortunately due to government neglect, only one company called the Karachi shipbreaking firm works at Gadani. If the shipbreaking yard at Gadani is utilized to its full potential it has the capacity to generate around 10 million dollars for Pakistan. Tourism is another industry that is severely neglected through this budget, especially tourism in the coastal areas. Though, our policy makers are adamant to promote this sector of the economy but policies pertaining to coastal tourism promotions seem to be far away. This neglect is costing us around 4 billion dollars, meanwhile contributing an embarrassing sum of 0.314 billion dollars considering the size of our coastal area. Last but not the least the transshipment industry again has been over looked despite Gwadar being a tax free port. Gwadar has the potential to be developed into a full-fledge regional hub and a trans-shipment port in the future. Shifting of ship traffic from Dubai to Gwadar could make it among the top-5 transshipment hubs globally. UAE handles over 21mn TEUs (20 ton equivalent units) each year; this signifies the opportunity that lies ahead for Gwadar. Being a tax free port coupled with no port congestion, after full development, Gwadar has leverage over other regional ports. Moving forward we will now dissect our regional neighbors and their respective maritime policies. According to the ministry of shipping in India, around 95% of trade is carried through the sea which amounts to 70% by value. The important thing to highlight is how the Indian government is supporting the maritime sector as a whole. The Indian government is encouraging FDI up to 100% for port and harbor construction with a facilitated 10 year tax holiday to upcoming entrepreneurs in this sector. The main objective is to encourage upcoming enterprises to develop, maintain and operate ports, inland waterways and inland ports to spur the Indian economy forward. Moving towards the budget that the government of India has outlaid for this sector is an astonishing 11.8 billion dollars. This subsequently has led to the following achievements. – Major ports turnaround time now stands at around 64.69 hours. – There has been five times more growth in major ports traffic. – The profit of Indian maritime sector has grown tree times in the past five years alone. – Operating margins for shipping sector alone has increased from 23% to 44%. – Cargo capacity at major ports from FY15 to FY19 has grown from 872 to 1514 million tons. Moving towards Bangladesh, again we can observe how respective governments despite their immense limitations have paid importance towards this pertinent realm. Bangladesh’s economy indicators lag behind Pakistan in various domains, however, this limitation of theirs has not deterred them from investing in the maritime domain and subsequently reaping immense rewards. The ocean almost contributes around 6 billion dollars annually to its economy, with their recent research suggesting that it has potential for a lot more. The Gross value addition (GVA) for its country in the maritime domain stands at a whopping 3.3 percent of the overall economy. This success has been achieved with the help of mechanized boats and industrial trawlers that can catch fish up to 70 kilometers from their shoreline. Though, the total shoreline is around 660 kilometers, hence the rest remains untapped. Another aspect that shows the seriousness of the government towards this domain is that Bangladesh has taken a 240 million dollar project from the World Bank to develop its coastal area and marine fishing capabilities. It is definitely a right step for Bangladesh as it will harness their blue economies potential and will allow them to tap the untapped resources in the aforementioned realm. It is understood that World Bank will work with Dhaka in areas such as coastal tourism, oil and mineral resources and fisheries. What more, it is also providing funds worth TK 99 million under technical assistance (TA) project. Moreover, the government is particularly interested in wooing the private investors to invest in oil and gas exploration, especially in the deep sea. A proposal is floated by the government that if a private business invests around 150 million dollars to 200 million dollars, the government will take a stake in its drilling as to lower their risks. All of these developments combined can give us a well-documented idea how serious the government really is towards harnessing its blue economy. The synergy of ocean economy and global economic expansion is all in all evolving by harnessing sea-bed resources. Different opportunities in areas of renewable energy, seaports, shipping and trans-shipment, marine biotechnology, deep sea bed explorations and aquaculture are rearing its head out to government around the world. Thus, overcoming the challenges and chalking out a sustainable pathway towards a healthy blue economy holds the key for long term economic growth of any country. Hence it is easy to see where our priorities are placed and in what domains we are severely lacking as a nation. We do talk about blue economy but we do not implement those plans when it comes to making policies or moving towards the right direction. India and Bangladesh in the past few years have evolved as a nation and in particular harnessed their maritime potential. The main moot point is that we need to allocate more funds for this essential sector if we want to secure our economy as a whole. Till the time adequate resources are not diverted towards this sector we cannot reach our economic potential in the maritime realm.