According to the Sri Lankans, this island nation, being surrounded by the ocean, still struggles with the tourism and fishery sector that are the main pillars of its gross domestic products and source of employment.
It has extensive coastal, marine, and mineral assets and ocean resources connected to fisheries, nautical tourism, boat/shipbuilding, ship repairs, mineral and sand mining, aquaponics/hydroponics to be considered for the nationals, as well as for the foreign investors.
The space for improvement in the Blue Economy field in Sri Lanka is immense and can be classified as mentioned below:
- the development of cold room services to help the fishermen to store their catch to store fish at -60c for the export market,
- expansion of fish processing and canning plants,
- establishment of the laboratories to periodically check fish quality/toxins and monitor harvest,
- establishment of training schools for the fishermen in modern methods of fishing by use of electronic equipment,
Finally, promoting and providing low-cost loans for deep-sea fish cultivation farms can be considered one of the measures to revive and prosper the Sri Lankan economy.