Marina teams up with Soname for PH ship repair, building

Marina teams up with Soname for PH ship repair, building
Genivi Factao November 25, 2020 https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/11/25/business/maritime-business/marina...

The Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (Soname) have stepped up the efforts to strengthen the technical capacity in shipbuilding, recycling, and audits.

Marina Administrator Robert A. Empedrad said the partnership with Soname, entails capacity-building measures for Marina’s technical personnel. At present, Marina has 45 registered naval architects nationwide who formulate technical standards for shipbuilding, ship repair, and ship recycling.

Soname, a regular member of the Marina Board, has been collaborating with Marina in providing capacity building activities for its naval architects and other engineers involved in the regulation of the country’s shipbuilding, ship repair, and ship recycling industry.

“Modernization of the country’s domestic shipping starts from ensuring that local shipyards meet the demands for ship construction at an affordable cost to investors and provide an option for domestic ship owners to avoid purchasing second-hand imported ships to enter the local market”, Empedrad said.

Soname has contributed to the efforts to modernize the domestic shipping fleet. Marina relies heavily on the technical expertise of its naval architects in coming up with boat and shipbuilding designs appropriate to the unique behaviors of Philippine waters.

Marina is in talks with Marino Partylist Sando Gonzalez for a legislative measure intended to revive incentives for domestic shipping and shipbuilding and ship repair under Republic Act No. 9295, otherwise known as the “Domestic Shipping Modernization Act of 2004 that expired in 2014.

This is part of the implementation arrangement of the 10 -Year Maritime Industry Development Program (MIDP).