At the Hong Kong Shipowners Association Joint Luncheon and Awards Ceremony, the issue of manpower shortage in the Hong Kong maritime industry was highlighted by director of marine Maisie Cheng.
Lack of manpower
He highlighted that though the standards of Hong Kong shipowners and operators remained high, with prominent names such as Anglo Eastern Ship Management, Fleet Management, Pacific Basin Shipping and Orient Overseas Container Line figuring among the outstanding performers in port state control for the years 2015 to 2017, he expressed concerns about the lack of manpower in the industry.
Training funds allocated
To overcome the problem of manpower shortage, Maritime and Aviation Training Fund (MATF) was set up in 2014 has played a key role in developing local talents and at the end of 2017 over 2,700 students and maritime practitioners had benefited from the fund, which had disbursed some HKD31m ($3.9m).
Hong Kong one of the top players
Ms.Cheng said, “The Hong Kong Shipping Register (HKSR) exceeded 116m gt at April as a result of the joint effort of ship owners, operators, staff and recognised organisations Hong Kong-registered ships are also among the best performers in the world. The average detention rate of Hong Kong-flagged ships was about 0.7% last year compared to the global average of 2.95%”.
She further added, “The Marine Department is also making efforts to address the issue of recruitment difficulties in recent years. It is reviewing the marine officer and surveyor of ships grades with a view to implementing a new system to attract younger staff”.
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Source: Seatrade Maritime
