Iranian Maritime Knowledge Hub to Open

 

Reza Mohammad Alibeike, member of The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST), said, "In order to promote culture and knowledge of common people and maritime activists with the maritime industry issues and related jobs, I decided to design and execute a simple, but smart and practical structure. From the studies, conferences, literature and commentaries of experts I found out that the main reason which reduces the speed of maritime industry growth in Iran is that the Iranian private sector is not interested to invest in this important and strategic field."

 

Mohammad Alibeike said, "The idea of The Iranian Maritime Industry Knowledge Hub will enable individuals to reach all the key data and valuable information of maritime sector in the minimum time easily by the form of intelligent software."

 

The member of Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) emphasized that in his software maritime industry is defined and its different segments are distinct.

 

Due to absence of a scientific and reasonable definition of maritime industry and lack of unawareness of the authorities, associations and policy maker institutes of the interactive and communicative models of stakeholders, we were facing a lot of challenges in practicing the development plans and the codified rules during the past 20 years, he said.

 

"Structural deficits in maritime industry have been ignored, thus all the plans became inapplicable. Since the targets have been missed, the atmosphere became uncertain for the maritime investors."

 

He said that the purpose of this software is to promote the national knowledge and awareness of the maritime industry. The result would be equal accessibility of all people to the useful maritime information, and thus Institutionalization would become in accordance to the new thoughts in this area. 

 

Another reason of producing this software, was to draw the attention of the three branches of the government (legislative branch, executive branch, Judiciary) to the defects and shortages of our maritime industry, in order to have them help us to reach a reasonable and practical development plan which will help us to go through the industrial transition easy and quickly, said Reza Mohammad Alibeike.

 

He added, promoting Iran's situation and efficiency in international maritime organizations, boosting the connection between maritime industry, universities and research centers by increasing the societies' awareness of their needs and capabilities and motivating investors and insurance companies to revise their regulations to gain more profit from the maritime market, are other goals of this software.

 

As Mohammad Alibeike stated, as a result of this software, we are expecting to have a well-managed increase in maritime industry, a promoted position in international societies, and a modification in maritime cultural, economic, political, security regulations. 

 

As an outcome, it is anticipated to have a better planned maritime policy, higher awareness of maritime industry among families, and consequently, increased motivation of students for studying in maritime fields and innovating ideas even for overseas manufacturers.

 

As he said, the targets of this software are not only all the common people, but also governmental CEOs in maritime industry, experts of justice, maritime lawyers, employers of offshore projects, and Iranian Ship-owners' Association.

 

In addition to these groups, other groups such as maritime university students and undergraduates, seafarers, organization, universities and maritime educational and research institutes, banks and financial institutes, Association of banking and credit investment consultants of Iran, Iranian Institutional Investors Association, Organization for Investment Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran, Central Insurance of Iran and Insurance Research Center and all other associations and syndicates which are related to maritime industry are all targets of this plan, said Mohammad Alibeike. 

 

Members of maritime parliamentary group, secretariat of the council of marine Industry, Iran marine fund, shipbuilders, offshore-rig builders and repairers, materials and components importers, classification societies, port state control officers, design and engineering companies, project management companies, unions and professional associations related to marine industry and ship brokers can use this software as he stated.

 

Mohammad Alibeike, who is also a member of The Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), also emphasized, "In this software, maritime industry is divided into six subsectors. Two subsectors which are related to offshore (fossil fuels and renewable energy) and shipping industry are already ready. Other subsectors, such as ports and terminals, maritime tourism, fishery and sea mines, are being negotiated with Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran. Since, the officials have agreed with this project, I anticipate that it would be ready to use by the next year." The other two subsectors (Offshore and Shipping) are ready and will be published on the web for public use during the next month.

 

In this software users can read about the maritime industry definition and the related activities, understanding the types of maritime assets, the introduction of maritime stakeholders, their roles and responsibilities in the process of design and construction, in operation phase (ship management) and finally scrapping and recycling, the definition of processes associated with design and engineering, production, procurement and supply of materials and components, installation and commissioning, quality control and quality assurance, dock and sea trials, knowing the standards of each process, the introduction of technical and crew management, shipbuilding contract and types of charter, types of marine insurance, legal maritime framework (IMO codes and conventions, ILO Maritime Labor Convention, IACS Instruments, Regional Seas Organizations) and Administration requirements, he said.