Report on existing strategies of key maritime sectors and their future development trends

Abstract

<p>The Blue economy concept and the Blue Growth agenda as a set of strategic objectives, offer<br />principles and guidance to identify blue economy potential for the cross-border Maritime Spatial<br />Planning (MSP) processes. Coastal regions and areas are recognised as having economic growth<br />potential that exceeds the levels of inland regions, which indicates that the sea basin withholds<br />valuable strategic resources in aiming for sustainable growth in the Plan4Blue (P4B) project area in<br />Finland and Estonia. The P4B output report 1.1.1 presents the past and current economic<br />developments of the selected blue industries in the project region. This report builds on the current<br />state analysis to outline and summarise some key strategic visions, aims and objectives for the<br />future, communicated by a wide range of blue economy stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR)<br />and globally, that is the EU, OECD, UN and focal blue industries that have all published visions and<br />guidelines or strategic objectives and policy papers to pursue future growth in a sustainable manner.<br />The strategies for the key blue industries call for cross-border and cross-sectoral development in the<br />Baltic Sea region to achieve blue growth effectively. In order to maintain and improve the health of<br />the Baltic Sea and wellbeing in the coastal areas requires strategic goal setting for short, medium<br />and long-term. The blue economy industries are interconnected and interdependent, which should be<br />seen as an advantage in the strategy formation and differentiation in the markets to achieve<br />economic growth in the future. More research is needed for more deeply understanding sustainable<br />blue economy dynamics and sectoral linkages within the wider regional economy.<br /></p>