The Greek office will be fully operational by November
A much anticipated office expected to deepen the Bahamas Maritime Authoritys (BMA) presence in Greece is set to open by November.
Chairman of the BMA Ian Fair has confirmed that both the Greece office and a Hong Kong office will be fully operational by the end of the year. Both offices are expected to expand the country’s registry by 10 percent, with plans in motion to boost the countrys image in those jurisdictions.
We will have the Greece office fully operational by November, he told Guardian Business. We will have more staff than the Hong Kong office. We have not determined exactly how much staff yet, but it will be six people immediately.
The move comes as the nations influence spreads in China, with BMA officials invited to speak in Tianjin, China in October, where it will make a technical presentation to the Hong Kong Shipowners Association.
Fair asserts marketing is important in the region.
Thats a key thing for that region… but more people are aware now that The Bahamas has a presence in East Asia.
We have some plans for October to do some more [marketing].
Fair has said the recent move to Hong Kong was a good one. The Far East trade mecca was earlier targeted by the BMA as key to increasing its already considerable presence across the globe. There is a huge growth potential in the region, with a lot of shipbuilding ongoing in China and South Korea.
The Bahamas has one of the top four shipping registries in the world and accounts for 53 million gross tons.
Fair said that the BMA had long set its stall out to attract quality before quantity, putting an age limit on the ships it accepts to the flag. This protects The Bahamas’ reputation across the world and will complement the upcoming introduction of a mega-yacht registry.
Some of the world’s largest and oldest ship management companies are based in Hong Kong, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development secretariat ranked Hong Kong the seventh important maritime center in 2007 in terms of the vessel tonnage it controls.
Since its establishment in 1957, the Hong Kong Shipowners Association (HKSOA) has grown from having only 11 local shipowners to one of the world’s largest shipowners associations, and has become a significant player in the international shipping sector, another bonus for the BMA.
Source: The Nassau Guardian
