Mr Chan Chun Sing, Secretary-General, National Trades Union Congress, and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office,

Capt Robin Foo, President, SMOU,

Ms Mary Liew, General Secretary, SMOU,

Mr Thomas Tay, Emeritus General Secretary, SMOU,

Mr Stephen Cotton, General Secretary, International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF),

Distinguished Guests,

Friends from the maritime community,

Good morning. I am honoured to speak at this conference. My address today will cover three key areas. First, the growth of Maritime Singapore and opportunities; second, the factors that stand in the way of Singaporeans joining Maritime Singapore; and third, how we need to work together to develop a quality maritime workforce to support our national maritime vision.

Maritime Singapore - A Growth Sector

Today, there are more than 5,000 maritime establishments in Singapore. Collectively, they employ more than 170,000 people. Contributing about 7% to Singapore's GDP, Maritime Singapore plays an important role in our economy and contributes to many good paying jobs. It is an industry that moves 90% of everything in the world.

Growing our Port
We are currently home to one of the world's busiest ports. In 2014, vessel arrival tonnage reached a record high of close to 2.4 billion GT and container throughput was almost 34 million TEUs. To support current and future increases in world trade and shipping activity, we are increasing our handling capacity.

Just last month, Phases 3 and 4 of Pasir Panjang Terminals was commissioned by Prime Minister Lee close enough to the same day the first container ship arrived in Singapore in 1972. When Pasir Panjang Terminals are fully operational, it will be able to handle up to 50 million TEUs. But we are not stopping here. With the expiry of the land leases for our city terminals - namely Tanjong Pagar, Keppel and Brani - in 2027, we will have to move to Tuas, where we will build our Next Generation Port. This will be a port with a total capacity of 65 million TEUs when fully operational. Phase 1 of the reclamation has already begun.

This will not be any ordinary port. To enhance our efficiency and productivity, the Tuas port will adopt greater automation, intelligent systems, smart sensors and data analytics to optimise port operations in the future. The Tuas port will also be more community-oriented, allowing greater public accessibility, to strengthen the links between the port and the wider community. This will be particularly important when our city terminals are moved from the heart of the city to the western part of the island. As they say, out of sight, out of mind. One of the biggest takeaways I had when I visited the Port of Rotterdam when they established Maasvlakte II was that when they moved the port further away from the city, that link between the public conciousness and the port's counterpart of the economy gets lost. I think this link needs to be preserved.

A Quality Flag
In addition, the Singapore Registry of Ships (SRS) currently has over 4,600 ships with over 84 million GT registered with it, ranking among the top five largest registries in the world. We have developed a reputation for being a quality flag, not a flag of convenience, and we intend to keep it this way. These vessels, especially those that operate from or through Singapore, will require competent captains, engineers and crew to man them.

Growing Maritime Services Cluster
When we think of Maritime Singapore, we often think of the port. But beyond the port, Maritime Singapore also comprises diverse shipping companies and service providers that provide a whole range of services covering broking, finance, insurance, P&I, classification and arbitration to support the maritime cluster. The number of international shipping groups in Singapore has grown over the years, from just 23 in 2000 to over 130 today. They are supported by a wide suite of ancillary service providers. With Singapore being looked at by companies as the springboard for expansion into Asia, I am confident that this list will continue to grow.

The Changing Nature of Maritime Sector & Its Impact
As with many other sectors, disruptive changes are taking place within the maritime sector that will shape its future growth. Many of these changes will alter the nature of maritime work.

Changing Operating Environment for Seafarers
In June this year, I invited a group of passionate seafarers to join me for coffee, as part of my regular dialogue sessions. They ranged from 20 years to 64 years of age. For the older officers, seafaring offered opportunities at a time when opportunities were limited. For the younger officers, they were looking for a different kind of challenge and perhaps a sense of adventure and a job that was less desk-bound. They acknowledged that the job was challenging but also rewarding and fulfilling, and opened up various career opportunities as they gained more experience.

For example, Capt Zhao Xiao Cheng has been sailing for more than 20 years. I asked him about his sailing experience over the years. This is what he had to say - "Ships have become bigger, cargo coverage is higher than before and fuel efficiency has improved. Navigating bigger ships amidst heavier traffic conditions is more difficult now".

I also had the pleasure of meeting Mr Chin Heng Loon. He has been a chief engineer since 1980. Being the most senior in the group, I asked him about what he saw as some of the biggest changes in shipping over his time. He said - "The horsepower of my first ship was about 3,300 KW. My most recent ship had horsepower of 15,000 KW. This is a vast difference. Ships are equipped with a lot more software. Today, work is less manual. More intelligent work is needed now. If crew needs help out at sea, they can use internet and communications systems on board to seek shore assistance quickly".

Indeed, ships are becoming bigger. In fact, the first Triple-E class containership, Maersk McKinney-Moller, sailed its maiden voyage from South Korea to Denmark just a year ago. The Triple-E class, one of the world's largest containerships, is about 400m long and as tall as a 20-storey building, if the ship is sitting vertically on one of its ends. The man and machine interfaces involved in making such a mammoth glide on the world's oceans to go in and out of ports is a marvel on its own. Not to mention the multi-million dollar value of the ship and its cargo that the crew on board is responsible for. Now the Maersk Triple-E class has been superseded by the CSCL Globe with OOCL's newly ordered ships of beyond 20,000 TEUs soon to follow. Will ships grow larger? We will have to see.

Ships are also becoming more sophisticated. As Heng Loon mentioned, more ships are being fitted with advance equipment and sensors such as Electronic Chart Displays and Information Systems (ECDIS) and aids to navigation. And of course Singapore is amongst the countries in the IMO for promoting the adoption of electronic charts. Gone are the days when ships had to stop and anchor during mist, fog or blizzards when visibility comes down to almost zero. Today, GPS or a space assisted "Global Positioning System" has taken over and has virtually become indispensable for navigation.

Here's another vessel, the Maersk Integrator. The Maersk Integrator is an ultra-large deepwater jack-up drillship, a sophisticated vessel designed to operate in harsh environments whose drilling operations are controlled by a control module shown in this picture. It is one of three jack-up rigs, the other two being Maersk Intrepid and Maersk Interceptor, that was built right here in Singapore by Keppel FELS and transported all the way to Stavanger, Norway. With a leg length of more than 200 metres, these rigs are the world's largest jack-ups designed to operate all year round in the North Sea. Operating on board such vessels require a high level of skills and knowledge.

Impact on Shore-based Roles
Let me now turn to the changes taking place on the port terminal front. Previously, container yard cranes were all manually operated. Today, these cranes are automated. At the same time, container boxes can now be moved by Automated Guided Vehicles (or AGVs) between the quayside and the container yards. These operations are remotely managed by intelligent navigation, deployment and tracking systems from centralised control centres.

If you think this is the subject of science fiction novels, we are already witnessing almost fully-automated operations at the newly-commissioned APM Terminals' Maasvlakte II terminal in Rotterdam. Its large quay cranes, large enough to load and unload Triple E ships, are operated remotely from a control room. An army of more than 60 battery-operated AGVs run between the quay and container yard. Here, you can also see PSAC testing out their own AGVs at Pasir Panjang Terminals 3 and 4. The key for us will be to achieve the same if not higher levels of productivity using such automated systems over the current manned systems.

Such transformations, in both shipping and port sectors, will continue to change the operating environment for the maritime sector. What this means is that the skills and competencies of those working in the maritime sector will have to keep up with these changes. In turn, the education and training landscape has to evolve with these developments to stay relevant.

Factors that Stand in the Way of Singaporeans Joining this Industry

What then stands in the way of Singaporeans joining an exciting industry in the midst of these transformations?

Perception
The first reason is perception. The general public still thinks that being a seafarer means having to suffer poor living conditions, being away from family for extended periods of time or even being "disconnected" from the rest of the world. However, today, vessels and the crew on board are more connected now than ever with internet connection. You can Facebook, Tweet and Instagram as you do at home.

Life at Sea
This is 3rd Officer (Deck) Arvinder Singh Gill from APL Co Pte Ltd. Arvin has always had an interest in ships since young and he likes the idea of being in charge of his own destiny. He roughly spends about 4-6 months out at sea but makes multiple port calls. Out of 10 hours a day, 8 hours are spent watch keeping and the remaining 2 hours are for maintenance. In his free time, he enjoys going to the gym, watching movies and surfing the internet - on his ship. In fact, he What's App a picture of himself for these slides while he was out at sea.

Yes, newer ships are increasingly being equipped with facilities such as gyms with some housing a swimming pool and even a sauna! Life at sea has certainly improved, particularly with new conventions such as the Maritime Labour Convention or MLC which protects the welfare of seafarers, and ships that are built to higher and better specifications with the crew's welfare in mind. Remuneration and Progression
The second reason may be the lack of awareness of attractive remuneration and progression opportunities. In Singapore, the marine engineering and nautical studies graduates of the Singapore Maritime Academy get good starting salaries as junior deck officers and marine engineers, clocking in about S$3,000 a month, according to the Singapore Maritime Academy. This is significantly higher than their non-maritime counterparts.

In terms of progression, there are also structured pathways in place for them to reach Ship Master or Chief Engineer rank. I understand that a ship master on an LNG tanker, for example, can reach a salary of more than US$10,000 a month. Seafarers need not have to sail for the rest of their careers. With a Class 1 CoC, their expertise will be required for critical shore-based positions such as superintendents and marine surveyors.

Investing in Quality Singaporean Seafarers
Third, we sometimes hear that Singaporean seafarers have to compete with lower cost manpower from elsewhere but I believe that Singaporeans can justify and even command a premium if we build up a strong reputation based on our integrity and reliability, good command of the English language, high level of skills and adaptability. For instance, APL finds Singaporeans highly adaptable to different cultures wherever the voyages take them given our own multi-cultural context. Companies like PIL also share that they take pride and effort to nurture and train Singaporean seafarers to be senior officers to form the core of their seafarers who can later assume key positions on shore. I thank APL and PIL for their strong support. We need more employers like them to help build up a strong core of local seafarers.

One should not think that seafaring is restricted to a men's world. We are also seeing more women join the profession. Ms Lim Pio Teo is a good example of females excelling and succeeding in a seafaring career. Pio Teo is currently a 2nd Engineer and has set her sights on becoming a Chief Engineer to take charge of the shipboard engineering department. I applaud Pio Teo for her drive and wish her the best in her career.

Captain Dorothy Sim is another example, who upon attaining her Class 1 COC, moved to a shore-based appointment. As a MPA scholar, she joined the MPA family (Vessel Traffic Management System Department) about a month ago. She shared that having made the decision to pursue a seafaring career at the young age of 17, she experienced some doubts along the way. But she made it to Class 1 thanks to the good support from MPA and SMA. Not only this, with MPA's help, she was able to sail on different types of vessels such as container ship, car carrier, product carrier and oil/chemical tanker. I think she's just waiting to sail on a gas tanker if she gets the chance. In fact both Pio Teo and Dorothy are here with us today.

Investing in Quality Singaporean Shore-based Positions
I would also like to thank many locally-based foreign companies that have been supporting our local talent development programmes. For instance, the MPA Global Internship Award or MPA GIA programme, was launched in 2013 to provide students a meaningful and enriching internship experience in the maritime industry both locally and abroad. Norden Shipping (Singapore) Pte Ltd was the first company to come on board this programme and offered Ms Benita Low an internship. Benita was then pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Maritime Studies at Nanyang Technological University. I am happy to share that Benita is now employed full-time with Norden. More recently, BP Singapore Pte Ltd committed a total of four internship placements this year, including the first law internship under this programme.

We are also seeing growing interest from companies such as Oldendorff Carriers and Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement in MPA's talent development programmes under the Maritime Cluster Fund such as the Management Associate Scheme, which aims to groom local development local talent for management and leadership positions. Thank you for your support.

Working Together to Build A Quality Maritime Workforce

People like Xiao Cheng, Heng Loon, Arvin, Pio Teo, Dorothy and Benita are part of the Singaporean core, which we must continue to grow. Building a quality maritime workforce and a strong maritime identity is now embedded as part of MPA's Future-Ready framework, which guides us in ensuring that Maritime Singapore continues to stay ahead of the game.

The question is - how do we go about doing it? We have quite a few suggestions from the Secretary-General. These are suggestions that we will take on board and part of which we are already working on and will develop further. The fact is no one single stakeholder can make this happen. A tripartite approach has to be adopted. The Government, unions and employers have to work together to improve perceptions of seafaring careers, raise awareness of progression opportunities and encourage investing in quality Singaporean seafarers. The good news is - these are not new steps that we need to take. The tripartite partners have already started work on this. Allow me to share a few examples.

Publicity/Outreach Efforts
As part of efforts to rebrand Maritime Singapore, MPA and its MaritimeONE stakeholders have been raising the profile of the sector through various publicity efforts. More recently, in celebration of Singapore's Golden Jubilee, MPA partnered the National Geographic Channels (NGC) and Singapore Shipping Association - thank you very much Mr Patrick Phoon - to produce a documentary titled "Inside Maritime Singapore," which premiered just last month. The documentary showcases the many different careers that make Maritime Singapore tick 24/7.

Through the annual Singapore Maritime Week which has grown to become one of Asia's leading maritime events, we have also incorporated new elements that reach out to the youth and general public, such as the first-ever Maritime Heritage Exhibition.

Last year, we also co-organised the inaugural Maritime Career Fair with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency or WDA and the Employment and Employability Institute or e2i to connect both maritime employers and jobseekers. All these efforts will take time to bear fruit, but if we can sustain them, I am confident we can bring about a change in perceptions.

Scholarship Opportunities
The Tripartite Maritime Scholarship or TMSS is another key initiative aimed at drawing young talent to the industry. It was jointly launched in 2002 by MPA, the unions and shipping companies to help build a pipeline of local ship captains and chief engineers. Earlier this year, MPA set aside about $6 million over the next five years to support an enhanced framework which includes an increase in training allowance, milestone achievement bonus as well as more opportunities for interaction with the industry.

I am happy to welcome another 20 students to the TMSS family under this enhanced programme. This is the highest number of scholarships offered since TMSS was launched. I am also pleased to share that we have two new sponsoring companies on board the TMSS programme. NYK Shipmanagement Ltd and X-Press Feeders Ltd will join the current industry sponsors, APL, PIL and PACC Ship Managers, under the TMSS programme. Beyond scholarships, MCF-MD also supports seafarers being sent by their companies to take STCW short courses by covering part of their course fees and as you've heard from the Secretary-General earlier on, we will covering the recertification courses.

MPA's New Taskforces to Develop Maritime Manpower and Create Multiple Pathways to Success
More recently, MPA set up two tripartite taskforces to give a further push to our maritime manpower efforts. One of the key thrusts is to develop multiple pathways to success in the maritime sector, covering both sea and shore-based jobs.

Tripartite Maritime Manpower Taskforce for Seafaring
The taskforce for seafaring will look at ways to build a strong Singaporean-core within the seafaring workforce for both harbourcraft and foreign-going Singapore-flagged ships. It is looking at initiatives to encourage more Singaporeans to take up seafaring careers, up-skill and chart their career progression, as well as reducing attrition for cadets undergoing training. The taskforce will also look at facilitating the transition of local seafarers from sea-going to shore-based positions.

One of the initial measures of the taskforce is the training of about 180 Singaporeans to graduate with the Certificate of Competencies (CoCs) Class 3 or 5, through cadet allowance reimbursement, so that more employers will be incentivised to place Singaporean cadets on their ships. To recognise the efforts of Singaporean cadets who reach their first professional CoC certification, we are also looking at giving out achievement awards once they complete the rigorous training and gained practical experience at sea.

Maritime Manpower Taskforce for Shore-based Sectors
For the taskforce for shore-based sectors, which was latest taskforce that was formed, it will focus on critical jobs in key shore-based sectors. Priority sectors include port operations, shipowning/operating and broking and technical services where we plan to develop structured competency roadmaps for these positions, working with the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) and industry stakeholders. In addition, the taskforce will also be working with the industry, such as PSA and Jurong Port, to develop career progression pathways for critical jobs, such as port engineers and port operations officers, to create better awareness and interests about the multiple entry points and pathways towards embarking on these maritime careers. These are all exciting initiatives and I think the tripartite members are also very excited in terms of what we can do together.

The National SkillsFuture Initiative is therefore timely and will complement the work of these two taskforces by providing earn and learn opportunities and more skills upgrading opportunities. Further details of the initiatives under both taskforces will be announced when ready.

We will continue to leverage on MPA's Maritime Cluster Fund-Manpower Development or MCF-MD to drive key manpower development initiatives. Earlier this year, MPA injected another S$65 million to the MCF-MD programme to attract and groom local talent for the maritime sector. This brings the funds invested under this programme since 2007 to S$115 million, signaling our commitment to maritime manpower development.

Conclusion

Our maritime manpower development efforts are aligned to the national-level SkillsFuture effort which encourages individuals to continually upgrade themselves in terms of knowledge, application and experience. These efforts once again show that the Government, Unions and Employers can and must work together to achieve the following three key goals - raise the profile of the maritime sector, make maritime careers attractive, and provide Singaporeans access to multiple pathways to success. We invite all of you to work with us to realise this vision. The spirit of tripartism is a strength that we should continue to harness to drive Maritime Singapore's future growth.

On that note, I thank you once again for inviting me to be part of this event and wish you a successful conference.

Thank you.