18 October 2005

Ladies & Gentlemen, distinguished guests

 

Welcome to ECDIS Today - an update on the recent advances made in both ECDIS and ENC.

 

Two years ago (almost to the day), our honoured co-hosts, the Maritime and Ports Authority of Singapore jointly sponsored with us the Second International ECDIS Conference for makers, distributors and (most importantly)users of ECDIS here in Singapore.

 

The conference proved a very successful and enlightening event, in fact there were two significant points which made this a landmark in the continuing story of ECDIS and ENC development -

 

Firstly, for the first time the makers of the systems heard directly from the users-and the users were far from shy in voicing their frustration and displeasure at the inaccessibility and inconsistencies in ENCs, confusion surrounding carriage requirements and what is regulation compliant and what is not and the slow progress of Hydrographic Offices and the IHO in providing solutions

 

Secondly, the two sponsors - MPA and UKHO - resolved immediately to follow up on these concerns. It was not just an interesting conference, but time to act.

 

Today BG Tay Lim Heng and I are delighted to be able outline for you just what this conference started, the important milestones we've achieved and to celebrate the ever-closer cooperation between our organisations with a "sneak preview" of progress to come.

 

I hope that the commitment of both our close colleagues at the MPA and the UKHO will be illustrated as we lay many of the issues from the ECDIS conference to rest.

 

In January 2004, the MPA and UKHO commissioned an independent, multi-national audit by a well-respected lecturer and authority on ECDIS-Captain Paul Hailwood. Paul interviewed ship owners, equipment purchasers, fleet managers, ship captains and navigators, across the globe. He presented his report to BG Tay and myself in the Spring of 2004. It made fascinating reading and challenged many preconceptions.

 

The perceived benefits of ECDISs/ENCs, were the increased situational awareness which they gave, leading to increased safety, and potentially a reduced workload.

The stumbling blocks for buyers, managers and end-users are:

1. cost - and the (expensive) need to carry paper charts as well as electronic if they weren't "official" ENCs

2. confusion about what was official and what was not - and uncertainty about whether it really mattered anyway

3. errors and inconsistencies in the charts

4. no "one-stop-shop"

5. and of course - insufficient coverage

 

So, what have we done about it?

 

Working together, the UKHO and MPA have employed their complementary strengths.

1. A long established world leader, the UKHO has a considerable share of the global market in paper charts (and it's getting on that way in electronic charts). Although the UKHO has significant resources, however where we can be bureaucratic and cumbersome, the MPA is innovative, challenging and resolutely focused on the future a perfect partnership.

2. The MPA sits in the most important trade and shipping area in the world. It has enormous influence in this region, and has close contacts with partners in Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and further afield - Australia.

 

MPA has been responsible for three major achievements since the Conference.

It played a strategic role in the East Asia Regional Hydrographic Commission and is the main reason why we now have for the first time ENCs of politically sensitive international waters-the South China Seas.

The MPA is also playing a strategic role in the Marine Electronic Highway project, which will significantly increase safety and management of shipping in the Singapore and Malacca Straits.

Singapore has led the way in producing accurate and detailed large-scale ENCs of ports and harbours. When you think about it, a tricky berthing situation is really not the time for a mariner to change from one type of electronic chart to another, or to paper charts! Thanks to the work MPA has carried out with other nations that is soon to become a problem of the past.

 

The UKHO also has three significant achievements to celebrate.

The introduction of our new Admiralty ECDIS Service in December 2004. This combines global Admiralty Raster Charts with ENCs, automatically supplying the ENC free of charge as it becomes available. For reasons I'll come on to, our Admiralty ECDIS Service is now becoming ENC-rich and I'm delighted to take this opportunity to endorse the Admiralty ECDIS Service to you. It's comprehensive, it's official, it's a one-stop-shop product and, relatively inexpensive, it is the platform for major advances and improvements to come.

What makes the product so good is, January of this year saw the UKHO embark on the International Partnering Programme. In the digital world, nobody can "go it alone". We need international partners (prime amongst which is Singapore) to help us provide navigation products and services to protect and remove the cares and burdens of the mariner at sea.

When I joined the UKHO in 2001, we had less than 40 government-to-government Bilateral Agreements covering British Admiralty paper charts of other nation's waters, and less than 30 agreements covering ARCS.

There were no agreements covering ENCs. Today we have agreements with 71 nations on paper charting, 67nations for ARCS and 65 nations for ENCs.

I think you'll agree this will vastly enhance the "one-stop-shop", official, accurate, inexpensive, electronic chart coverage of the world.

 

Thirdly, and very importantly I'm pleased introduce a leading German ECDIS kernel (software) manufacturing company "7Cs" - , who will also be speaking today. 7cs will be working closely with us to ensure that the data from those 71 countries, ENCs covering all major and secondary shipping routes, navigation publications are included in comprehensive and inexpensive publications, planning and routing aids. Meeting all carriage requirements, these products and service will become rapidly available to mariners in a new suite of products, based initially on our ECDIS Service.

 

You will soon hear more of these services and when you do, I ask you to remember that they are a result of the Conference we held in 2003 and the and the initiative and drive and excellent working relationships shared by the UKHO, MPA and 7Cs.

 

I am delighted you were able to join us this evening and I believe you should expect to see us all back here again in a year or so, to celebrate yet more success.

 

I hand you over now to the Chief Executive of the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore, BG Tay Lim Heng.

 

Thank you.