Technology and the human element dominant issues

In a keynote address to the Global Maritime Summit Greece’s Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy Giannis Plakiotakis, said: “We consider it necessary to reduce the administrative burden on ships and to facilitate the use of digital information with the aim of improving the efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability of maritime transport.”

The Global Maritime Summit organised by Seatrade Maritime is being held at Posidonia 2022.

Minister Plakiotakis noted that the themes of the conference – digital transformation and the human element were two issues that were dominant in the Greek shipping community.

Expanding further on the theme of digitalisation he said the European Maritime Single Window environment was now operational in Greece reducing the administrative burden of maritime transport.

In the field of maritime education 11 digital transformation projects have been launched in cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Governance.

The Minister said these include electronic curriculum management systems in all public merchant marine academies, the establishment of an e-registry of maritime education teachers, and the development of a new e-training system for maritime education.

“The continuous and constant digitisation of basic structural functions of the shipping industry is directly related to the need for a new generation of executives who will be familiar with this new reality,” he said.

This linked to the second theme of the conference – the human element. With an expected shortage of 90,000 of senior officers by the end of the decade the industry cannot afford to be inactive on its future workforce.

“The development of Greek shipping and the Greek flag is inextricably linked to the availability of young seafarers who are trained and qualified, able to face the future challenges of shipping, namely decarbonization, protection of the

environment in general, digitaliaation, cyber-security, autonomous and semi-autonomous ships. In that context, I intend to propose a comprehensive plan for the enhancement of the marine education system by the end of the year,” the Minister stated.

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Technology and the human element dominant issues for Greek shipping