'Blue economy needs to be measured to tap its potential'

An integrated and holistic approach to measure the blue economy of each nation is required to gain access to the untapped potential of this sector, a US researcher has said.

Charles Colgan, from National Ocean Economics Programme (NCEP), US, in a talk here on Tuesday evening said there were five different dimensions to this, namely, customers, capital, management, innovation and measurement.

He was speaking on the subject 'Blue Economy Framework for Sustainable Development and Economic Prosperity', organised by Research and Information System For Developing Countries (RIS) jointly with the Ministry of Earth Sciences at the India Habitat Centre.

In his presentation, titled 'A Practical Guide to the Blue Economy', Colgan highlighted the crucial issue concerning the accounting of blue economy. He said data collection is a "cooperative between day to day managers and researchers", as a result of which policy formulation for promoting blue economy and exploring cooperation at the regional levels becomes difficult.

He said understanding and analysing the Net Ocean Product as a "measure of sustainability" is very much needed to study the size and sectoral differences in Blue Economy among countries. It would require convergence and cooperation of technology among different countries to optimise the Blue Economy.

Colgan said that "a break from organisational and integrational silos" is needed to accept and adapt the dynamic nature of the blue economy paradigm.

The lecture was held prior to the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) summit which will take place on May 10-12 in Jakarta.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated the "Blue Economy Imperative" during his visits to the Seychelles and Mauritius in March 2015. Through this, Blue Economy holds the mandate of integrating the twin objectives of growth and sustainability for fostering development with countries in the realm of Ocean development.

--IANS

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