BusinessMirror Editorial: Our ace in the global maritime industry

Our ace in the global maritime industry
July 18, 2023 https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/07/18/our-ace-in-the-global-maritime-...

The Philippines relies on shipping to link more than 7,000 islands. Shipping also connects the country to international commerce and trade. Our maritime industry, which employs hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, is one of the most critical sectors of the economy, and a vital component in attaining socioeconomic progress and inclusive growth.

As the global maritime sector stands at the crossroads of a post-pandemic world, facing challenges of transitioning to “green” shipping in mitigating climate-change impacts, as well as ensuring the world’s mariners are well prepared for a future of increasing automation, a Filipino—the first Asian—has taken over the helm of the World Maritime University. (Read, “Filipino at helm of global school for maritime leaders,” in the BusinessMirror, July 9, 2023).

Professor Maximo Q. Mejia, who assumed the World Maritime University presidency in June, said the WMU will play a crucial role in helping provide the leadership and strategic direction in the application of new technologies, equipment and systems, along with the corresponding training and upskilling of seafarers globally.

Mejia said there are hypothetically 1.5 million seafarers to be affected in this transition, which is focused on sustainability, decarbonization and environmental protection in the maritime sector. Based on WMU studies, the transition “basically means there will be a realignment of jobs so there will be more skills required.”

There is already a shortage of seafarers, and it will continue to grow, said Mejia, adding that the shortage pertains to “skilled, qualified and highly skilled” seafarers. It takes four years to get a certified officer, “and we’re not producing enough of them.”

Mejia observed there are now fewer seafarers from economically prosperous countries like Japan and Norway, which used to produce many of them. He also said “geopolitical turbulence” is another factor, citing Myanmar’s case where the number of seafarers declined after the military takeover two years ago.

His vision is to expand the seafaring pool of women mariners, who comprise merely 2 percent of the sector, and most of them are not even involved in operational occupations in seafaring. “I think we’re not doing enough to make it interesting and enticing to them. We have to do more,” he said.

Based on latest government data, the Philippines deployed 489,852 seafarers last year. This is 15,917 less than the 505,769 deployed in 2019 before the pandemic caused a significant decline in the country’s seafarer deployment in 2020 and 2021.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said in a recent dialogue with seafarers’ organizations—with Mejia and other WMU officials among the attendees—that he is hopeful the Philippines will remain the “Seafaring Capital of the World,” considering that one out of five crew members on ocean-going vessels is Filipino.

Mejia said few people may realize it, but the Philippines has the fourth-largest shipbuilding industry in the world, next to China, Korea and Japan. Although there is a big gap between the Philippines and the “Big Three,” he thinks that the “government can do much more to help promote the Philippines, now that Japanese, Korean and Australian shipbuilders have already set up their own operations in the country.”

According to Mejia, the so-called “European standard” has become not only fundamental, but also “very essential” to the Filipino mariners’ certificates. It is considered the global standard based on the International Maritime Organization’s Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping, the set of rules and standards adopted in its 1978 convention to determine the knowledge and skills mariners need to safely perform their jobs at sea.

His advice to seafaring countries like the Philippines is to “continue to be proactive,” noting that it is the responsibility of governments to make sure that they comply with international standards so that their seafarers can be deployed anytime.

In the long term, there is really a need to continue educating Filipino seafarers to prevent a repeat of sanction threats from the European Maritime Safety Agency. The Philippines was once on EMSA’s “White List,” Mejia said the Philippines is now on the right track, “but we have to keep up the tempo,” especially after narrowly averting this year a ban on Filipino seafarers boarding EU-flagged vessels.

There’s an urgent need for the Philippines to develop our maritime curricula, along with the upscaling of programs to strengthen the country’s position as the “Seafaring Capital of the World.” Fortunately, the Philippine maritime industry has an ace in Mejia, the World Maritime University president who can help upgrade our maritime schools to become world-class institutions that can compete with the best in the world.