{"id":200390,"date":"2019-04-05T22:51:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T17:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=200390"},"modified":"2019-04-10T01:51:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T20:21:06","slug":"de-colonizing-development-knowledge-technology-transfer-to-benefit-indian-ocean-communities-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/de-colonizing-development-knowledge-technology-transfer-to-benefit-indian-ocean-communities-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"De-Colonizing Development: Knowledge & Technology Transfer To Benefit Indian Ocean Communities – II"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake<\/a>\u00a0\u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake<\/p><\/div>\n

Paradox of Plenty or Marine Resource Curse? Turning Lanka\u2019s Debt-Trap Narrative on its head<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ceylon\/Sri Lanka\u2019s geostrategic location was the reason that the island was colonized by competing European (Portuguese, Dutch and British) maritime empires seeking to control the Sea Silk Route and trade in the Indian Ocean for 450 years; from 1505 CE until independence in 1948. Today Sri Lanka is a \u201cchock point\u201d in international security discourse for energy, trade and data transmission for the global internet\u2019s Undersea Data Cable Routes (UDC).<\/p>\n

Given its geo-politically strategic location in the Indian Ocean which is a hot spot in the emergent Cold War between the US and its allies and China with the ambitious Belt and Road (BRI) project, and the wealth of Lanka\u2019s ocean resources, both living and non, living, the country which is in a \u2018debt trap\u2019 to international bond traders who own 55 percent of Sri Lanka\u2019s sovereign debt that has caused rapid currency depreciation appears to suffer from a classic case of what some development economists term a Paradox of Plenty or \u2018Resource Curse\u201d.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The resource curse<\/strong> refers to countries with an abundance of natural resources<\/a> (such as fossil fuels<\/a> and certain minerals<\/a>), that tend to have less economic growth<\/a>, less democracy<\/a>, poor governance, high rates of corruption and worse development<\/a> outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources. There are many theories and much academic debate about the reasons for, and exceptions to, these adverse outcomes. Certain types of countries or regions, such as those in or recovering from armed conflicts are particularly susceptible to the resource curse, given debilitated governance institutions and brain drain of expertise and talent, and a concomitant dependence on foreign aid, experts and consultants to craft development policy.<\/p>\n

The idea that resources and geostrategic location might be an economic curse than a blessing emerged in debates in the 1950s and 1960s about the economic problems of low and middle-income countries, as Cold War proxy wars ravaged Africa, the continent with the richest mineral resources and raw materials in the world. Subsequently, former head of the Reserve Bank of India Raghuram G. Rajan and Arvind Subramanian, argued in a widely read paper that; \u201cone of the most important and intriguing puzzles in economics is, why it is so hard to find a robust effect of aid on the long-term growth of poor countries, even those with good policies\u201d (2006). They suggested that aid inflows have systematic adverse effects on a country\u2019s competitiveness, as reflected in the lower relative growth rate of labor intensive and exporting industries, as well as, a lower growth rate of the manufacturing sector as a whole. They provided evidence suggesting that the channel for these effects is a real exchange rate overvaluation caused by aid inflow.<\/p>\n

That Sri Lanka has attracted little Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), but <\/u>is a \u201cdonor darling\u201d with numerous debt-trap \u201cdevelopment\u201d projects that lack transparency and accountability, substantiates our \u2018resource curse\u2019 hypothesis to explain the county\u2019s post-war debt trap. \u00a035% of Sri Lanka\u2019s sovereign debt is owed to Japan\u2019s JICA, ADB, and the World Bank for concessionary loans. China, which holds about 14% of Sri Lanka\u2019s sovereign debt according to Verite Research has been targeted by American Vice President, Mike Pence, on several occasions for blame for Sri Lanka\u2019s post-war debt trap \u201cdevelopment\u201d trajectory \u2013 signaling the extent of on-going trade and Cold War tensions between US and China in the Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, the shadowy Millennium Challenge Corporation\u00a0 (MCC), which had promised a billion dollar \u201cAid Compact\u201d back in 2016 for yet unspecified projects, drafts Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe\u2019s, land, transport and energy sector policies. Although many multilateral and bilateral concessionary loans come with significantly lower interest rates than from the private sector, because they are still denominated in foreign currencies such as dollars, payments on them can also become substantially more expensive if a country\u2019s currency devalues. Sri Lanka\u2019s total foreign debt burden had increased by over Rs 626 billion due to the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar between January 2015 and November 2017, Parliament was told on March 26, by State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne.<\/p>\n

One of the more insidious aspects of being a \u2018donor darling\u2019 is aid for trade induced Dutch Disease indexed in local-global networks of aid-related corruption, rent-seeking, and local and national institutional decay. The result has been the lack of development policy ownership by local communities that results in building of white elephant infrastructure, such as in Hambantota, that fail to meet local people\u2019s development needs and priorities in an environmentally sustainable manner. Failure of development projects to meet local development priorities is also substantially due to a lack of transparency. accountability and coordination by \u2018aid\u2019 donors, in a scenario where donors\u2019 security and business interests trump rules of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness which seem to be in abeyance despite the existence of a \u2018Development Partners Secretariat\u2019 in the UN Compound in Colombo at this time.<\/p>\n

Islanded Development Policy and Aid Dependency<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ten years after a globally networked internal conflict ended, Sri Lanka appears increasingly caught once again in heightened geopolitical cross-currents and competition for ports and lands in the Indian Ocean between the Washington Consensus Paris Club of aid donors\u00a0 (United States and Euro-Asian allies, particularly, Japan, Korea, France and UK), on the one hand, and China and her partners, while India tries to balance a course as the island\u2019s most powerful neighbor who was burned in the internal conflict, in the context of Sri Lanka\u2019s post-war record of poor local governance, politicized institutions, corruption and related brain drain. [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

As an island surrounded by blue ocean with no adjacent land mass aside from India, Maldives and Chagos Island, Sri Lanka should logically have an industrialized fisheries and aquaculture sector earning significant foreign exchange, at least, in the Southern seas and coastal areas which were relatively unaffected by 30 years of armed conflict. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the country has an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), 15 times it land extent, and sits in rich and relatively unpolluted fisheries grounds in the Indian Ocean. The island\u2019s southern seas are proximate to spawning grounds of high value blue fin Tuna.<\/p>\n

However, fisheries accounts for a mere 1.3 percent of Sri Lanka\u2019s\u00a0 GDP, and the sector is perhaps exhibit number one in the \u2018resource curse\u2019 hypothesis to explain the island\u2019s current foreign aid related post-war debt trap, development trajectory: For years, French, EU, Japan, ADB, Norwegian, Korean development \u201caid\u201d funds and projects, as well as, EU\u2019s \u2018aid for trade\u2019 or GSP Plus trade \u2018concessions\u2019 have been channelled to the Fisheries sector and Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Sri Lanka, while many of these same so-called aid donors\u2019 (Distant Water Fishing State\u2019s (DWFS), fleets have over-fished and depleted the IO fish stocks including high value IO blue fin tuna in the Indian Ocean in an industry that is worth over 2 billion USD a year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, according to the National Aquatic Resources Agency (NARA), Sri Lanka continues to spend valuable foreign exchange on importing fish around 20% of requirement. According to the statistics of the Fisheries Department, the quantity of fish imported from 2018 has been 84,463 metric tons Dried fish, sprats, Maldive fish, canned fish and live fish (ornamental fish) have been imported. “Such a large amount of money flowing out of the country is a serious situation.<\/p>\n

Traditional fishermen use poles and lines to catch Tuna one by one, which allows part of the Tuna shoal to escape, but these industrial fishing fleets from France, Spain, EU, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan that started entering the Indian Ocean since 1980s, use Purse-seine nets, which scoop up all the big and small fish of the targeted area. Some large purse-seines are said to be as huge as 500meters across and 200 meters deep, sufficient to enclose all the high rise buildings of Colombo\u2019s central Fort area. Tuna is a migratory fish and these vessels track them in the deep seas. Another tool in this process is the Fish Aggregation Device (FAD) which is now sophisticated for remote monitoring by satellite technology. In the open seas, fish aggregate around large floating items like logs. The fishing vessels using this simple concept, let several such structures drift on the open sea. But these have electronic devices attached to them that estimate the amount of fish aggregate underneath, and transmit to mother vessels through satellites. So the fishing vessel can decide on which area to harvest Tuna to get the maximum catch.<\/p>\n

There has been a decades long failure to up-scale and industrialize Sri Lanka\u2019s fisheries sector while the trawlers of so-called distant water foreign states (DWFS), many of whom are co-incidentally aid donors and so-called concessionary trade partners such as the EU, fish in the high-value, Tuna rich southern seas of Sri Lanka. \u00a0Indeed, Sri Lanka\u2019s over-crowded near shore fisheries still remains \u201cartisanal\u201d and at a subsistence level, with just a few multi-day boats venturing into the high seas. For years, French, EU, Japan, ADB, Norwegian, Korean development \u201caid\u201d funds and projects have been channelled to the Fisheries sector and Ministry of Fisheries in Sri Lanka, seemingly to maintain fisheries at a more or less subsistence or \u201cartisanal\u201d level, rather than up-scaling it as a premier export industry and foreign exchange generator for Sri Lanka given the extent of its uncontested ocean to the South of the Island. These countries are also \u201caid\u201d donors to Sri Lanka and other Indian Ocean small island states and provide \u2018aid for trade\u2019, such as EU\u2019s GSP Plus for Sri Lankan fisheries exports under so-called concessionary terms.<\/p>\n

Dambisa Moyo, a brilliant African Economist has noted that concessionary trade agreements such as GSP Plus and aid for trade relationships are in the long run counter-productive to real development and facilitative of a colonial dependency mentality. Other interests besides environmental concerns about illegal, unreported and illegal fishing (UUI) were evident in the EU ban on Sri Lankan fish exports when Chinese vessels run by a BOI registered company in league the Fisheries Minister\u2019s agents started operating in and off Sri Lanka\u2019s EEZ in 2014. EU claimed that there was \u201cillegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing on-going in Sri Lanka, but the bigger problem may have been the fact that the Chinese vessels presented competition to the French, Spanish and EU boats operating in the IO[2]<\/a> Sri Lanka clearly needs to look to expand its fishery export market beyond the EU.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and Ministers of many regimes not known for good governance or forward planning, have found it easier to sign away fishing rights in Sri Lanka\u2019s EEZ to foreign vessels and hand over ports to international donors as is happening at this time with Olluvil Harbour in the Eastern Province to be given to ADB, KKS habour in the north to India, and 4 southern Harbors to France and EU consultancy company Cofferpech which has no prior experience in Sri Lanka. Arguably, the Avant Guard corruption investigation into the setting up of secret floating armory off the coast of Sri Lanka after asset stripping the Sri Lanka Navy\u2019s lucrative marine security operation in the Indian ocean seems to be a case in point that strategically located island nation suffers from a post-war marine \u2018resource curse\u2019.<\/p>\n

In the final analysis, development thinking has been \u2018Islanded\u2019 or land-locked when it comes to sustainable development and use of Sri Lanka\u2019s extensive and rich marine resources to benefit this ocean resource-rich, strategically located and hence ironically, debt-trapped country that is in the Washington Consensus \u201cBail Out Business\u201d today due to corrupt political leadership, development policies and agendas that are crafted to benefit \u201caid\u201d donors business and security interests, and failure to access in-country expertise and invest in research and development (R & D), particularly in the marine sector, where Sri Lanka\u2019s wealth is and global attention is directed at this time in the India Ocean given the depletion of land resources in the development rush and the turn to marine and extra-terrestrial exploration.<\/p>\n

In the context it is salutary to remember that economy was in far better state even at the height of the 30-year war.<\/p>\n

Knowledge and technology transfer to scale up marine resource development<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s \u2018Islanded\u2019, land-locked development thinking and policy evident in other sectors such as energy and mineral resources development is symptomatic of aid induced Dutch disease. Indeed, at this time Sri Lanka\u2019s marine resources development policies, narrative and agendas appear to be increasingly crafted to benefit \u201caid\u201d donors\u2019 strategic business and security interests given the island geo-strategic location in the absence of knowledge and technology transfer. Poor governance, politicized Ministries and a fragmented institutional landscape have also resulted in the failure to access in-country expertise and invest in research and development (R & D) in the marine sector, where Sri Lanka\u2019s wealth is and global attention is directed at this time in the India Ocean given the depletion of land resources in the development rush and the turn to marine exploration.<\/p>\n

Fisheries sector data continues to be collected together with agriculture sector data by Sri Lanka Govt institutions and the Department of Census and Statistics, whereas in countries like India Fisheries data is collected separately and disaggregated from agricultural sector data in recognition of the importance of both sectors to the national economy for forward planning. Gender disaggregated data on the fisheries sector in Sri Lanka is non-existent<\/p>\n

Recently a Norwegian fisheries survey concluded that Sri Lanka\u2019s oceans lacked fish stock. Sri Lanka\u2019s marine resources development narrative has been crafted by foreign consultants to ensure that the sector and industry may remain at a more or less \u201cartisan\u201d level, despite abundant ocean and Tuna stocks in an off Sri Lanka\u2019s Southern seas. On the other hand, local research on the fisheries sector has been overwhelmingly focussed on Indian-Sri Lankan fisheries conflicts in the northern seas, rather than the potential to upscale the Southern Fisheries sector to go into deep sea and industrial fish for a viable export industry, while trawlers form Japan, Korea, China, Britain and France with their islands (Chagos and French island) which are far from the Indian Ocean etc. harvest in waters proximate to Sri Lanka\u2019s landmass.<\/p>\n

Recently, in the context of discussion on a looming energy crisis and the awarding of 2 controversial contracts to companies to build Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) power plants in Kerewalapitiya, the Minister of Enterprise, Mallik Samarawickrama spoken about \u201cpotential exploitation of indigenous gas reserves expected to be in 5-7 years\u2019 time.\u201d Sri Lanka has which has never been known for good governance or forward thinking to up-scale or industrialize to enable deep sea fishing with a masterplan, road map and achievement targets. Basin of the Bay of Bengal Lanka shares valuable mineral deposits.<\/p>\n

The extent of mineral and energy reserves in Sri Lanka\u2019s EEZ are probably better known to US, Norwegian, French, British, and Indian Oil companies and governments than Sri Lankan citizens and relevant research institutions and think tanks so that the debate on the equitable and transparent use of such resources is yet to occur. Rather, aid-loans from interested parties such as EU, France, Japan, Norway and Korea and local corruption at high level has de-developed or under-developed marine related industry in the post-colonial period. In the context it would be important to review past and existing agreements that succeeding fisheries ministers have entered into with aid\/loan donors regarding harvesting of fish in Sri Lanka\u2019s EEZ and adjacent deep seas and call for a ban on distant water fishing states (DWFS) to ensure conservation of fisheries in the Indian Ocean, and <\/em><\/strong>develop a masterplan to up-scale and enable deep sea fishing with a masterplan, road map and achievement targets.<\/p>\n

Where Colonialism, Conservation and Trade Meet: \u201cHistory\u201d and quotas at IOTC<\/strong><\/p>\n

The plight of Chagos Island peoples and impoverished Indian Ocean fisheries communities seems to illustrate the point that colonialism is alive and well today as noted in the February 25, 2019 ruling the Britain must de-colonize the Chagos Islands. The rich resources of the Indian ocean are harvested by DWFS companies on the basis of a history of colonial access and Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) fishing quotas in the Indian Ocean. The situation of IO rim fisher communities is also illustrative of the fact that neoliberal \u201cdevelopment\u201d amounts to \u2018colonialism by other means\u201d, as alluded to in Columbia University Economist William Easterly\u2019s book titled \u201cThe White Man\u2019s Burden: Why the West\u2019s Effort to Aid the Rest have done so little good and so much harm\u201d.<\/p>\n

Distant water fishing nations dominate the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) by virtue of the history of colonialism in the Indian Ocean as fishery quotas are euphemistically allocated on the basis of \u201chistory\u201d of fish catches by colonial states, The ICJ ruling that Chagos Island must be de-colonized and that colonialism has come to an end should be the basis for allocating fishing rights only to Indian Ocean Rim States.<\/em> However, as recently as 2016 the EU proposed that 90 percent of IO Tuna should quota be allocated to DWFS, a proposal that was rejected by Indian Ocean rim states. Depletion of Indian Ocean Tuna is significantly a result of the distant water industrial scale fishing fleet of vessels entering the Indian Ocean, primarily EU, France, Japan, Korea and Spain which to do not border the IO, and which should be banned in order to conserve IO fishery.<\/p>\n

Currently, the CITES conservation agenda that would make Chagos Islands a marine reservation, would make Indian Ocean rim states and their impoverished coastal communities bear the cost of marine conservation and fish stock depletion caused by distant water fleets, while the need of the hour is to severely limit or ban Distant water fleets in the IO till fish stocks recover.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the context of the up-coming Washington and EU led Conventions on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which is targeting ocean resources under the \u201cblue Ocean enterprise, and where GoSL may unknowingly sign away Lanka\u2019s ocean resource rights due to lack of expertise and attention to fine print it is imperative that Fisheries communities and Co-operatives be consulted. Simultaneously, it would be important to review the current situation of deep sea\/oceanic fishing in the Sri Lanka Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ and contiguous waters, and develop a sound and effective Deep Sea fishing Policy, rather than signing away fisheries rights and quotas to Distant Water fisheries nation.<\/p>\n

The tuna fishery sector in Sri Lanka has been facing an insufficient financial support for the introduction of well devised deep sea fishing vessels in the EEZ. In countries such as Norway and Denmark, separate fisheries bank has been set up, obviously because of the distinctive characteristics of the fishery sector and the need to have separate banking set-up for the purpose. The developing countries like India, the system for fishery sector has been to set up the National Marine Fisheries bank which provides a guarantee to the financing of introducing deep sea fishing vessels and for securing other needed infrastructure facilities.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

The sustainable utilization of living and non-living Indian Ocean resources by IO communities has been bogged down and often deliberately delayed in extended process of negotiations over jurisdiction, as well as litigation as evident from the Chagos Island case.\u00a0 The “Resolution on the Development of Marine Scientific and Technological Capabilities” – one of the resolutions appended to the Final Act of the Conference gave the formal endorsement of the United Nations to a management concept for the oceans has not been followed up.[4]<\/a>The Indian Ocean Marine Affairs Corporation (IOMAC) seems to be in slumber although, six main areas of activity were identified: \u00a0marine science technology and ocean services; living resources; non-living resources; ocean law policy and management; marine transport and communications, and the marine environment.<\/p>\n

Conclusion: From Chagos to Sri Lanka, de-colonizing the IO<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an era when air, water, oceans, and lands, as well as, history, ethnicity, religious identity politics and even war trauma, just about everything in fact, is being financialized, commoditized, privatized and curated for sale or debt, and hence often weaponized; how can a country as richly endowed with marine resources and geostrategic location as a trade, energy, and data security hub be apparently caught in \u2018debt trap\u2019, ten years after armed conflict ended?<\/p>\n

The answer is not only blowing in the wind but also in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka suffers from an Indian Ocean geostrategic marine \u201cresource curse\u201d — like the Chago islands. The trauma and plight of the Indian Ocean Chagos Islands people, forcibly displaced and scattered that signifies the incomplete process of de-colonization of Mauritius and the re-colonization of Chagos Island by UK-US, must both haunt and enlighten Sri Lanka\u2019s search for answers to its post 2009, post-war debt trap development debacle: Claiming that the ICJ\u2019s ruling that Chagos Islands must be returned to Mauritius \u2018was an advisory opinion, not a judgment\u2019 , the British foreign office has said the Diego Garica military base \u2018helps to protect people around the world from terrorist threats, organized crime and piracy.\u2019 The door closes once more on the hopes of the Chagossians to return to their island home?<\/p>\n

A geostrategic trade and security \u201cchoke point\u201d the new Cold War it is increasingly apparent that Sri Lanka suffers from an marine \u201cresource curse\u2019 as this time, as global-local networks of (fake) development \u2018aid for trade\u2019 related corruption and poor institutions have been steadily eating into the body politic and social fabric, particularly since war ended in 2009, pushing the country further and further into the IMF Washington Consensus and related sovereign bond traders\u2019 \u2018debt trap\u2019, while strategic assets, lands, ports, fisheries, LNG and mineral resources are being traded and sold off willy-nilly in the absence of open tender processes, transparency and accountability by local authorities.<\/p>\n

Coastal communities of the Indian Ocean risk being beggared through a duel strategy of privatizing oceans and lands via \u201cenvironmental\u2019 discourses and related trade control mechanisms also embedded in the CITES push in into Ocean resources, as evident in ongoing attempts to turn Chagos Island into a marine reserve to prevent return of Chagossians to Diego Garcia, as well as, through the securitization, surveillance and militarization of the IO gathers pace with a new Cold War in the IO. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute recently noted that world military expenditure in 2017 reached highest level since the Cold War end, at $1.739 trillion. The SIPRI Report noted that the US remained the world’s largest spender with $610bn, unchanged year-on-year. The US accounted for 35 percent of global military expenditures, more than the next seven highest-spending countries combined.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the over-securitization of Sri Lanka due to twin threat constructions of drugs coming from the ocean, as well as, environmental discourses unless balanced with a geopolitical and strategic analysis could be detrimental to Sri Lanka citizens and other Indian Ocean small island nations enjoying their own marine resources and benefits and income for their development and sustainable use. Islanded development policy processes as a result of aid dependence for development policy making, as well as. Corruption has meant insufficient awareness, recognition and interest in developing and sustainable use Sri Lanka and other small island developing state\u2019s enormous marine resource, and the need for investment in marine and ocean related research and development (R & D), including a Marine and Ocean University and the transfer of technology to enable development of a national strategy or masterplan to develop and utilize Sri Lanka\u2019s marine resources, both live and non-live.<\/p>\n

As the February 25 ICJ ruling that Britain must return Chagos Island to its people, tells us, de-colonization is not over yet, and re-colonization by other means including debt trap \u201cdevelopment\u201d and rituals of accountability at the UNHRC in Geneva against Sri Lanka, may constitute a \u2018politics of distraction\u2019 on the one hand, as the Cold War between the United States with its European and Japanese allies against China heats up in the Indian Ocean, with competition to access and control strategically located Sri Lanka\u2019s ports, airports and lands, as well as, access valuable live and non-live marine resources. Arguments presented before the ICJ reflect concerns about inequalities of power, the legacy of colonialism and the continuing dependency of former colonial states on former colonial powers. At the same time, and as emerges from the arguments presented to the ICJ, there are matters which go beyond the remit of individuals or individual countries and concern the international community as a whole. As with the development of the ius cogens<\/em> on decolonization, those with less power \u2013 in the case of decolonisation those countries which had been colonised \u2013 may have little say in how the rules emerge. This argument might be applied to the current debate about the global commons, the control of seas beyond national jurisdictions, the protection of 10% (perhaps by the end of this year 30%) of the world\u2019s oceans and other current debates which appear to undermine the idea of autonomous sovereign states. Indeed whereas \u2018the winds of change\u2019 was the mantra of the latter part of the twentieth century, \u2018protecting the planet\u2019 might be described as that of the current century.<\/p>\n

It might also be suggested that the declaration of large marine parks around overseas territories, and even around island states which are now independent, is a continuing manifestation of colonisation and the legacy of inequality of resources and bargaining power that flowed from decolonisation. This is rather ironic given that the UNGA declared 2010-2020 to be the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism. As Walter Lini (first President of Vanuatu) said: \u2018The remnants of the past must be lifted from our ocean, for \u2026 until all of us are free, none of us are\u2019.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, Brooking Institute researcher Mariam Soy writes: One of the key underlying economic reasons of piracy in Somalia is the depletion of seafood resources through illegal fishing by foreign companies. the depletion of Somalia\u2019s seafood stock had pushed workers who depended on fishing for a livelihood toward piracy. In 2009, a Time<\/em> magazine article highlighted the transformation of Somali waters into a \u201cfree-for-all\u201d fishing site<\/a>. where international fleets illegally collected more than $300 million worth of seafood. Foreign vessels have been increasingly present in Somali waters, with seafood captures doubling or even tripling those of Somali fishermen (Figure 2).<\/p>\n

India, the regional power, distracted with conflicts on her northern borders has been unable to play a vital lead role to secure the riches and resources of the ocean that shares her name– for Indian Ocean rim countries – in the international community were big states hold sway.<\/p>\n

There is a need for great South-South, Asian -African collaboration to secure the resources of the IO and the Economic and Social rights of IO rim communities at this time. However, Sri Lankan civil society and NGOs which are largely funded by US and EU have shown little interest, sympathy or solidarity towards their Chagossian neighbors plight, and India focused on it never-ending Indo-Pakistan wars and tensions with China along northern borders has not been able to work for the rights of its southern and coastal communities.<\/p>\n

As the authors of the book \u201cWhy Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty\u201d\u00a0 (2012 ), and Rajan and Subramaniam \u00a0suggest, poor institutions and brain drain have enabled international \u2018aid\u2019 donors to craft Sri Lanka\u2019s development policies to benefit their respective business and strategic security interests in the Indian Ocean through a confluence of debt trap \u2018development\u2019 policies<\/strong> and narratives<\/strong>, poor governance, and debilitated institutions whose downward spiral has been exacerbated by local power-struggles and corruption of the political and related business elite\u2019s \u00a0dependence on foreign consultants and \u2018experts\u2019 to craft Sri Lanka\u2019s national development policy and \u201cdebt trap\u201d \u00a0narrative. The debt trap development policy framework in post-war Sri Lanka and its narratives are increasingly crafted by financially illiterate local politicians, such as the Finance Minister who knows nothing about finance, who rely on IFIs and audit firms of the international the \u201cbail out business\u201d.<\/p>\n

There are clearly geostrategic reasons including an apparent low-intensity economic-war against the people of Sri Lanka |(as in Venezuela), \u00a0being waged by external parties with the Washington Consensus (IMF and World Bank), that have put Sri Lanka into a debt trap and what the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam terms the \u201cInternational Bail Out business\u201d whereby big banks, sovereign bond traders and 4 accounting companies KPMG, Deloitte, PWC and Arthur Anderson which work for America First and the Global 1 percent continues to re-cycle debt and capture strategic resources, and asset strip counties and its peoples economies. This is how the transfer of wealth from the global north to south which has expanded inequality to the extent that 86 percent of global wealth is owned by 8.6 percent of the Super-rich has been enabled.<\/p>\n

In the context, Sri Lanka needs to invest in institutional capacity building and technology transfer with a Road Map to upscale the fisheries sector and marine sector as a whole including harbour engineers, marine oil and gas exploration capacity, and ensure the requisite transfer of technology<\/em> but instead all the youth are going overseas to university. \u00a0Sri Lanka urgently needs an INTEGRATED \u00a0marine resources sector and development Policy and Master Plan \u2013 that integrates analysis and a road map to develop and UP-SCALE \u00a0ocean-related sectors such as:<\/p>\n

1. Trade and Logistics and ports and security<\/p>\n

2. Fisheries and aquaculture industry upscaling<\/p>\n

3. Oil and Gas sustainable use with best practices from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI),<\/p>\n

4. Marine mineral use with best practices from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI),<\/p>\n

5. Sustainable marine ecosystem management as a cross cutting theme.6. SL navy to protect Sri Lanka\u2019s EEZ resources<\/p>\n

There is need for an\u00a0 integrated marine resources development policy and Masterplan to up-scale the Fisheries sectors <\/u>\u00a0and for arguably, State-led, development of Sri Lanka\u2019s marine resources (both live and dead including LNG and seabed mineral ), as well as, related infrastructure and engineering expertise at national universities which should have marine engineering programs for ports and marine sector research and development resource management and environmental assessments for sustainable development especially in the context of the island\u2019s geostrategic location in the Indian Ocean, which is emerging as a trade and resource competition hot spot.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

With regard to non-living marine resources, Sri Lanka may wish to engage experts from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), in the context of the LNG plant cases that are ongoing in the AGs department. There has been no investment in university and higher education, research and development or forward thinking in on how to sustainably use Lanka\u2019s extensive marine resources, live and dead, (Fisheries, as well as, LNG in Manner basin and mineral deposits in Bay of Bengal.) What happened to the Ocean University?!<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance supports Sri Lanka\u2019s fisheries sector to cut post-harvest losses\u201d was the title of the<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.colombopage.com\/archive_19A\/Feb19_1550557174CH.php<\/a><\/p>\n

FAO Fisheries Circular No. 920 FIRM\/C920<\/u><\/strong> Rome, 1997<\/strong> ISSN 0429-9329<\/strong><\/p>\n

REVIEW OF THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERY RESOURCES: MARINE FISHERIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.fao.org\/3\/w4248e\/w4248e16.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/window2nature.wordpress.com\/2011\/02\/20\/indian-ocean-countries-unite-on-sustainable-tuna-fishery\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Why Nations Fail<\/strong>. Why Nations Fail<\/strong>: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, first published in 2012<\/p>\n

2011 Principles of allocation systems and criteria for Indian Ocean Tuna Fisheries. A guide for IO participants to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission\u2019s Technical Committee on Quota Allocation, World Wildlife fund https:\/\/d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net\/downloads\/a_guide_to_negotiating_qas_in_the_io_new_.pdf<\/p>\n

Transnational Institute, Amsterdam.\u00a0 Greece and the International Bail Out Business Jubilee Debt campaign for debt cancellation oceanic area almost equal to one hundred and twenty-five times of its land area under UNCLOS Article 76.\u00a0 This area covers a large extent of the southern part of the Bay of Bengal with a thick sediment cover having a high potential of hydrocarbon accumulation. UNCLOS Article 76, enabling a special method of establishing maritime boundaries for countries south of the Bay of Bengal was formulated during the Third United Nations Conference of the Law of the Sea held in 1982.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> The Spanish fleet has caught 73.95% of its quota in the Indian Ocean, industry sources told\u00a0Undercurrent\u00a0<\/em>on July 3.The amount remaining to complete the 45,682t allocated to the Spanish fleet is therefore less than 12,000t\u00a0for the rest of the year. The French fleet is in a similar situation. However, the French fleet could fish until December, thanks to \u201csteps that have been taken\u201d, according to a third French source. Wonder what and where these mysterious steps were and whether the Coffrepeche projects is part of these \u201csteps taken\u201d?!<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Cf. N.G.K. Pillai and Satishkumar, P. (2013) Conservation and Management of Tuna Fisheries in the Indian Ocean and EEZ. International Journal of Marine Sciences Vol. 3. No. 25 https:\/\/core.ac.uk\/download\/pdf\/33019676.pdf<\/a> accessed February 20, 2019<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> http:\/\/archive.unu.edu\/unupress\/unupbooks\/uu15oe\/uu15oe0n.htm<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Japanese experts study coastal erosion in Sri Lank\u201d with British experts http:\/\/www.sundaytimes.lk\/190224\/news\/japanese-experts-study-coastal-erosion-in-sl-337720.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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