Singapore has facilitated crew change for more than 60,000 crew of different nationalities from more than 3,500 ships, said Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Transport, Mr. Chee Hong Tat when he opened the MPA Singapore’s International Safety@Sea Webinar Series, Monday.
Singapore will continue to do our part to facilitate crew change safely. It is the right thing to do and we will do it right. We work very closely with industry associations, unions, maritime companies and international organizations to implement a safe crew change protocol,
…he said.
Mr. Chee added that Singapore will be moving to Phase 2 of its Crew Facilitation Centre (CFC).
First, in the use of technology, the CFC in Singapore will be a Centre of Excellence for Crew Change Protocols to test-bed emerging technologies that support safer crew change procedures. These improved procedures will be published so as to share Singapore’s best practices with other ports.
Second, following Singapore’s experience in operating the CFC, a CrewSafe audit programme has been developed to assist crew source nations with pre-departure protocols at medical and holding facilities.
This is an initiative under the Singapore Shipping Tripartite Alliance Resilience (SG-STAR) Fund that was launched to support best practices amongst seafaring nations in promoting safe crew change. MPA will also reach out to members of the Port Authorities Roundtable to encourage them to join these efforts.