KARACHI: The media briefing of the Pakistan International Maritime Exhibition and Conference (PIMEC) was held at the Karachi Expo Centre on Thursday.

Commander Karachi Rear Admiral Mian Zakirullah Jan along with Additional Secretary of Ministry of Maritime Affairs (MoMA) Asad Rafi Chandna gave the briefing.

The maiden edition of PIMEC will be held from February 10 to 12 at the Karachi Expo Centre.

Around 133 exhibitors, including 21international firms and 112 local firms and international organisations are participating in the exhibition.

In addition, 37 delegations from 17 countries, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Q atar, Oman, Turkiye, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Portugal, United States, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles and Kazakhstan will also attend the event.

Another highlight of the event is the active participation of Sindh and Balochistan governments. They have established exclusive pavilions aimed at promoting investment in the maritime sector.

PIMEC will include maritime exhibition, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) meetings, signing of MoUs and media interactions.

The main objective of the PIMEC is to highlight Pakistan`s potential for blue economy and provide opportunities tothe maritime industry both in the public and private sectors to display products at a single forum. This will also provide a platform for interaction with the international maritime industry for joint ventures, transfer of technology and research to underscore importance of Pakistan`s maritime and defence industries.

In parallel to PIMEC`s conference part, which is the International Maritime Conference-2023 spearheaded by the National Institute of Maritime Affairs, has also been organised on the theme of Embracing Blue Economy -Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Countries.

The maritime conference, thematically distributed under four sessions, will cover 27 papers by local and foreign speakers.

According to Rear Admiral Mian Zakirullah Jan, the maritime sector is the heart of global trade and economy.

The existing value of the global ocean economy is expected to double in size bythe year 2030.It can, therefore,be construed that prosperity of a nation and economic growth are to a greater extent facilitated by the maritime sector.

The Pakistan Navy, in coordination with MoMA, took the initiative of bringing the national and international maritime stakeholders to enhance maritime awareness and bring to fore the largely untapped maritime sector of Pakistan.

It is believed that the PN-MoMA joint initiative of holding the first PIMEC will not only bolster Pakistan`s blue economy, but also become the harbinger of socio-economic development of the country`s coastal belt.

The PIMEC is being conducted in tandem with the multinational exercise `Aman-2023`, which will provide an opportunity to over 122 delegates from 50 participating countries to witness the event.

It will also increase opportunities for local exhibitors to interact with delegates of visiting navies.