Distinguished Guests,
Parents,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening and a warm welcome.

It was around this time last year that the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore first announced the MPA Global Internship Award (MPA GIA).This is part of MPA's wider strategy to raise greater awareness of our maritime roots and to develop local talent to support our growing and diverse maritime industry which contributes seven percent of Singapore's GDP and employs more than 170,000 people.

To attract young talent, it is important to create exciting maritime internship opportunities for our young Singaporeans. The shipping business, being international in nature, can certainly offer opportunities that enable young people to be plugged into global maritime activities. Hence, our MPA GIA programme is tailored to allow the interns to gain a deeper appreciation of the global nature of the maritime industry through hands-on learning in both the local and overseas offices of participating maritime companies. In doing so, our MPA GIA recipients will be able to experience working with different cultures be it in Dubai, Shanghai, London or Houston.

As the internships cover diverse functions such as asset management to marketing to finance, the MPA GIA Programme is open to students from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU) in both maritime-related courses and other disciplines such as accountancy, business and finance.Two million dollars has been set aside to support this Programme.

Our first MPA GIA recipient, Miss Benita Low, concluded her five-week winter internship with Norden Shipping (Singapore) Pte Ltd in January this year. When asked what she enjoyed most about her internship, her reply was, "Being able to rotate around the different desks, both in Copenhagen and Singapore. Especially in Copenhagen, it was interesting to see how the headquarters coordinates between the various offices around the world. Whereas in Singapore, what I liked was being given real tasks to work on."She added that her key takeaway from the MPA GIA programme was, "During my 5 weeks, there was always something interesting happening in office all the time and that's what I'm looking for in a job - looking forward to something new everyday."I understand that she has been offered a Management Trainee position with Norden Shipping upon her graduation this year. At this juncture, I would like to thank Mr Jakob Bergholdt, Group Vice President and CEO of Norden Shipping (Singapore), for his strong support of the MPA GIA Programme.

This year, we are heartened by the encouraging response from both companies as well as students. 16 maritime companies offered 23 internship positions for our 2014 programme. These internships include overseas stints covering Australasia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

The response from students was most encouraging with more than 120 applications received. After several rounds of interviews by MPA and the participating companies, 23 students were selected for the award. In addition to good academic results, these students demonstrated a keen interest in learning beyond the classroom.

In addition to recognising these 23 recipients today, I would like to thank our 16 partners, without whom the MPA GIA Programme would not have garnered such positive response. Besides being a mentor to our young recipients, their support of the programme is testament to their commitment in manpower development for Maritime Singapore.

I would also like to thank NTU, NUS and SMU for partnering us in promoting this programme. Our close collaboration with these institutions will help us tailor a programme that continues to be relevant and valuable to the students.

It is my hope that the good teamwork among MPA, the industry and the education institutions strengthens as we work towards the continued success of the MPA GIA Programme.

Congratulations once again to the 23 award recipients today. As the future generation of Singapore' maritime industry, I hope you make the best use of this opportunity and return to contribute to the continued success of Maritime Singapore.

Thank you.