Speaking at a webinar on Tuesday entitled “Make Maritime Your Next Port of Call, Chee Hong Tat, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Transport and Foreign Affairs, noted that container volumes at the country’s port, the second largest box port globally, had fallen just 2% between January and July this year.
“Now this 2% is lower than what we have seen in many other ports, and of course if you compare this to many other sectors of the economy, particularly aviation, I think the maritime sector has been quite resilient during this pandemic,” the Minister said.
“In fact, we saw some diversion of traffic from other ports to the Port of Singapore and this is one of the ways in which our free and open port continue to provide services to ensure the flow of essential items to global supply chains.
While the world is still very in the grips of the Covid-19 crisis Singapore is planning for the growth and reshaped maritime markets post the pandemic.
“We will adapt to seize new opportunities as global supply chains reorganise and continue to invest in Maritime Singapore to build deep capabilities to emerge stronger from the crisis. To this talent is needed. Talent is what we need to power the growth of the industry,” he said.
Minister Chee noted that a falling tide lowers all boats, “But do fear even though in such an environment companies are cautious and are not hiring significantly we will continue to invest in our people, and we will encourage more individuals to go for training under the different SGUnited programmes, and we are doing this during the crisis because we are confident the maritime industry will continue to grow after the crisis.”
The Minister announced that over 200 traineeships would be offered by maritime companies to provide fresh and recent graduates with industry relevant skills and experience.
The traineeships would include commercial, operations, engineering, ICT and corporate job functions and be offered by companies such as PSA, Jurong Port, Maersk Singapore, Bernhard Schulte Ship Management and maritime companies under the Kuok Group.
The webinar kicked-off a two-day virtual MSC Maritime Careers Workshop organised by the Maritime Singapore Connect Office (MSC), a unit under the Singapore Maritime Foundation.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited.
Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.  |
