The maritime and offshore industry should look to investing in innovations and finding ways to optimize efficiencies, in order to be well placed to do well when the markets turn and the global economy picks up again, Mike Meade, CEO of M3 Marine, said on the occasion of the opening of Asia Pacific Maritime (APM) 2016 in Singapore.
“Holding APM in Singapore, for example, plays a pivotal role as we have strong economic links and connectivity to all the major world markets and a strategic location,” he added.
Southeast Asia’s largest maritime trade exhibition comes at a time when the maritime and offshore industry are faced with strong headwinds which are likely to continue in the following couple of years.
Michelle Lim, Managing Director, Reed Exhibitions said, “ Despite conservative sentiments, we believe that the downturn has presented business a timely opportunity to reposition themselves and identify new possibilities to stay afloat. As events organiser, we are not resting on our laurels, and we make sure to deliver relevantly to the industry’s needs so that businesses can ride on the wave when the economy picks up. We are very excited to be supporting the industry in Singapore and rest of Asia with APM 2016″
“In spite of the challenging global environment, we believe the long term growth prospect for Asia is good as it remains one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Asia already accounts for about 70% of global container throughput handled by the world’s top 30 container ports. It is therefore not surprising that 9 of the world’s 10 busiest container ports are in Asia. In addition, new multilateral initiatives such as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) will further spur intra-regional and international trade,” Lucien Wong, Chairman of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said.
Due to its convenient strategic location, Singapore serves as a gateway to Asia and the MPA has invested heavily in Singapore’s port structure. Last year saw the opening of the Pasir Panjang Terminal’s Phases 3 and 4 and until 2017, it is estimated that Singapore will be able to handle 50 million TEUs of containers annually, as Wong remarked.
Further, ongoing projects include the development of a next-generation port at Tuas as well as of an LNG bunker-ready port.
The three-day conference was kick started on Monday, March 14th and will see exhibitors display their products from international marine, workboat and offshore communities. The event, now in its 14th edition, gathers numerous experts from the maritime industry addressing the most pressing issues such as quality control and regulation, issue of overcapacity in several parts of shipping, talent retention and grooming.