KARACHI, PAKISTAN: Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi said the country’s ship breaking industry was declining due to poor human resource management and collective failure at institutional level.

“Pakistan used to be world’s leader in this industry in the past, but our poor human resource management and collective failure at institutional level has ranked us 4th position in the world”.

He was speaking at the concluding session of three-day national seminar on the ratification and implementation of the Hong Kong Convention for safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships on Friday.

Minister said that Ministry of Maritime Affairs had no FDC Fisheries Development Commissioner for the last ten years which showed non-serious attitude towards marine industry in the past.

“But the good news is that this seminar is first of its type to be held in Pakistan. Although we are not the signatory to this convention, we will soon become party to it to re-boost the ship breaking industry by increasing employment, assuring the safety of the work force and protecting from environmental hazards”, he added.

Minister also highlighted the ongoing development of harmonizing national laws in line with the Hong Kong Convention. He said that despite several challenges, Ministry of Maritime Affairs was adamantly sticking to the reform agenda of reviving old glory in ship breaking industry by closely coordinating with International Maritime Organisation and national stakeholders.

The national seminar is a collaborative effort of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs (MoMA). The Seminar aims at creating awareness about the Convention among the local stakeholders and to build capacity of public & private organizations dealing with the Ship Breaking Industry.

Total sixteen countries have ratified the convention. The Convention will come into force in Pakistan once the prescribed criteria are met.