Growth, opportunities, and challenges facing the regional maritime industry also deliberated upon at the event
The global shipping industry is in the midst of a serious manpower crisis, according to Capt. M. Athar Shafique, Vice Principal of the Karachi-based Maritime Training Institute, and a speaker at the Gulf Maritime Conference that was held at Expo Centre Sharjah on April 17, 2007.
"The shipping industry has witnessed unprecedented technological advancement in hardware during the recent past," said Capt. Shafique at the Conference.
"But I regret to say that our advancement has been fairly limited only to the hardware component of the shipping industry and we have neglected the software component that is sufficient qualified skilled manpower," he said.
Capt. Shafique said that the shipping industry across the world provided livelihood to over 1.2 million people. The growth of the industry however was not proportionate with the increase in manpower, he pointed out.
According to industry reports, the world's merchant fleet suffers a continuous shortage of around 10,000 qualified officers or 2% of the total global officer workforce.
Among the reasons given at the Conference for the shortage of seafarers were lack of motivation to join ship as seafarer, lack of sponsorship from shipping companies for training future workforce, lack of sea berths for cadets to complete their sea time, stressful working conditions on board, criminalisation of seafarers, employment barriers placed by flag states, increase in number of ships worldwide, and increase in high-tech or specialised ships.
Capt. Shafique also attributed the shortage of seafarers to the lack of maritime institutes capable of producing cadets.
Remedies suggested at the Conference included improvement of working conditions of seafarers, increase in manpower recruitment globally, better wages and long term financial benefits like pension, providing sea berths to trained seafarers, quality training of seafarers, and improvement in retention rate of seafarers.
The Gulf Maritime Conference also featured detailed presentations on Islamic Ship Finance from a regional ship owner's point of view by well-known shipping expert and senior legal consultant with Cyprus-based Economides, Dionysiou & Co., Mr. George Zambartas, criminalization of maritime accidents by Mr. George Chalos, Partner of US-based Chalos, O' Connor & Duffy, Natural gas powered ship by Dr. Mohamed Mosaad, Professor of Ship Performance and Propeller at Suez Canal University, Egypt, Design for Construction of Floating Oil Field Structure by Mr. N.T. Anildas, CEO of India-based Conceptia Software Technologies, and Sea it your way - A new generation of Advanced Integrated Navigation Solutions by Mr. Rudi Joustra, GM, Elcome International.
The one-day Gulf Maritime Conference was held alongside the Gulf Maritime Exhibition.
The Exhibition is displaying Deck machinery and other vessel equipment, Docking equipment, Electronics, Communication and navigation systems, Engine and propulsion systems, Fuel and lubricants, Ride control systems, Sound and vibration control systems, Marine interiors, Paints and coatings, latest vessel building designs and technology, equipment for fishing, Offshore support vessels, cargo ships, tankers, tugs, ferries, and patrol boats, Ship repair and port operations products, and Cargo handling services.
It is open till April 18, 2007, from 10 am to 6 pm for trade only. The event is an initiative of Expo Centre Sharjah with the support of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI).
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For more information, please contact:
DEBDEEP CHAKRABORTY
Public Relations Manager
P.O.Box 3222. Sharjah
UAE
Tel : +971-6- 5991189
Fax: +971-6- 57701111
© Press Release 2007
