Danish envoy commends PH government role in crew change

Danish envoy commends PH government role in crew change
April 28, 2021 https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/04/28/business/maritime-business/danish...

The Philippine government has earned favorable remarks from shipowning countries on how the country performed at the height of the pandemic last year.

The government through the Maritime Industry Authority ( Marina) got positive feedback from the Danish shipping community on how it responded to the crew change problems that eventually spiraled into humanitarian and maritime safety crises.

Speaking on the impact of the pandemic on global shipping during a recent virtual forum hosted by the Manila Times, Danish Ambassador to the Philippines Grete Sillasen said there was a time last year when Danish shipowners were having serious problems with seafarers manning their ships that transport about 10 % of the global trade.

Denmark has the 4th largest merchant fleet in terms of gross tonnage (GT) in the entire European Union. Some of the world-renowned Danish companies are A.P. Møller-Mærsk Group, Torm, DFDS Group, J. Lauritzen, Svitzer, and Nordenjust to name a few.

They employ about 10,000 Filipino officers and ratings, accounting for the biggest slice of manpower onboard the Danish shipping fleet.

“They (seafarers) could not go off their ships for a long time,” Sillasen said, especially following the decision of AP Moller to close down some of its subsidiaries last year.

Hence, “the priority of the Danish government was first to see crew change going, so very rapidly they set up a system whereby crew changes could take place by way of Denmark,” the Danish official added.

The ambassador recounted that the shipowners’ association of Denmark and the government had agreed that “something should be done so that we can keep crew change happening and so we make Denmark a special port for the crew change to take place.”

Amid the Danish government’s efforts to overcome the challenges in staging crew changes, Sillasen made special mention specifically of Marina, recognizing its significant role in facilitating crew change operations on ships owned and managed by Danish shipping companies.

“The Philippine authorities were super cooperative in making exemptions when needed for people to travel to (Danish) ships,” the ambassador underscored.

“The (Danish) shipowners have done their part,» she said but hastened to add: “We have very fine cooperation with Marina in finding the necessary flexibility to make (these crew changes) happen.”

Sillasen recalled that sometime in June or July last year, the Danish embassies worldwide were back on track with the processing of visas and they had processed the most number of seafarers’ visas globally last year; it was their contribution in easing up the crew swap crisis.

It was also during the period that the Philippines government, through the initiative of agencies like the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Department of Transportation (DoTr), The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), and the Marina through intense lobbying of the local manning agencies, adopted the so-called green lane that ensured faster, safer and unhampered deployment of Filipino seafarers overseas.