Keynote Speech (Voyage toward blue horizon: Future building with unutilized aquatic resource.)

Abstract

The "Blue Economy" has been common with the concept of sustainability, especially among island countries. Though islands face a variety of challenges, the vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and unique and "direct" aquatic connections between land and sea are the potential advantages on their developmental paths toward "hopes," predefined sustainable goals in 2015 by the United Nations. In Mauritius, the island country in the Western Indian Ocean, a comprehensive developmental project with aquatic resource uses has been carried out with scientific knowledge from Japan, one of the eastern Asian island countries. Stakeholders are co-working to build new models for their value chains and market channels as well as for shared knowledgebase for future generations. Young researchers have been learning and making efforts for the methodologies of economic development with a harmony of stakeholders. Development of the blue economy brings us an opportunity to develop a paradigm by researchers and arenas for young hopes in islands including Sri Lanka.