Annual Singapore Maritime Dialogue on Building a Future

A record 400 tertiary students attended  annual Singapore Maritime Dialogue (SMD), organised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

This is the first time MPA has teamed up with students from the National University of Singapore to engage and encourage their peers to participate in the SMD.

Centred on the theme “Building a Future-Ready Maritime Singapore”, the panel comprising Guest-of-Honour, Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Transport and Health, Dr Lam Pin Min, Mr Andrew Tan, Chief Executive of MPA, and industry professionals Mr Alvin Ea, CEO and Co-Founder of Haulio, Mr Eric Chean, CEO of Ship Supplies Direct Pte Ltd, and Mr Desmond Chong, General Manager of Sinanju Tankers Holdings Pte Ltd (Singapore Maritime Ambassador), shared candidly with students their experiences and views on Maritime Singapore.

The session, moderated by Mr Tan Kok Choon, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore Business School, Decision Sciences, explored the various opportunities and career paths in the maritime sector.

Ms Rachel Quek, a Year 3 Economics student said, “This session has been enriching for me. I didn’t realise that the maritime industry has such a diverse ecosystem, with jobs in ship finance, marine insurance and ship broking that can be suitable for an Economics student like me.”

The young maritime professionals on the panel spoke about the industry’s push to be more innovative and technology-savvy. They gave the participants a better understanding of how the Sea Transport Industry Transformation Map is helping maritime enterprises build deeper capabilities, compete more efficiently and venture into new growth areas such as e-platforms and technology solutions.

Economics Year 2 student, Mr Linus Ang said, “I am encouraged to learn that Maritime Singapore is investing in industry-recognised programmes to develop a future-ready maritime workforce. Personally I think it is important to ensure that our workforce is able to keep up with advancements in technology so as to work in synergy with and not against technological disruptions.”

In his closing speech, Dr Lam said, “Maritime Singapore will see many new and rewarding jobs. Besides ship charterers, brokers, marine insurers and maritime lawyers, we now have data analysts, robotics experts and cyber-security specialists joining the ranks of maritime professionals. I hope this provides you with a good glimpse of the many opportunities Maritime Singapore has to offer.”