With the approval of China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), the first World Maritime Conference 2019, co-hosted by the China Institute of Navigation (CIN) and Shanghai Maritime University, was held in Lingang Special New Area，Shanghai on October 20. A total number of over 400 representatives attended the conference, including navigational experts and scholars, and representatives of enterprises and institutions from nearly 30 countries and regions.
At the opening ceremony of the conference, Huang Youfang, Chairman of CIN said，the conference is the highest-level, the largest-scaled and the most extensive international academic conference in the field of maritime affairs domestically at present. With the change of world trade pattern and the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, unmanned driving and so on, the shipping industry faces both opportunities and challenges. The success of the World Maritime Conference 2019 will certainly make great contributions to promoting the healthy, safe, green, intelligent, high-quality and sustainable development of the world maritime affairs and other related fields.
Under the theme of ‘New Era, New Technology and New Maritime Affairs’, the conference contains 13 forums and more than 100 theme speeches, covering the current hot topics and major progresses in the fields of world maritime economy forum, shipping and management, intelligent ships, maritime management, maritime law, maritime energy management and so on.
On the same afternoon, Dr. Eric Maskin, the Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, and Professor George Fitzgerald Smoot, the Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics were invited to Nobel Laureates Forum and made wonderful keynote reports on ‘Blockchain, Its Benefits and Drawbacks’ and ‘Blue Ocean Economy’. Followed were speeches delivered by Chris Trelawny, Vice Director of Division of Technical Cooperation of the International Maritime Organization, Xu Zuyuan, former Vice Minister of Ministry of Communication, Casper Ryborg, Deloitte’s Global Head of Transportation and Shipping & Ports, Denmark, Mo Jianhui, President of China Classification Society, and Roger Johnston, CEO of the Australian Pilbara Ports Authority.
At the meeting, Huang Youfang, Chairman of CIN, officially released Research Report on Navigation Status in the South China Sea, 2018. Professor Xiao Yingjie, Chairman of the Standing Committee of CIN, introduced the main contents of the report in detail. It was the third time since 2017 for CIN to release a research report on navigation in the South China Sea.
In the high-level dialogue session, John Lloyd, CEO of The Nautical Institute of UK, George Best, Sales Director of the AIS from ORBCOMM from USA, Marko Rahikainen, Chief Adviser of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom of Finland, and Dr. Ma Shuo, Vice President of the World Maritime University, exchanged ideas on ‘Digital Transformation and Development of the Maritime Industry’.
Focusing on the new development and progress of academic science and technology in the global maritime field, the conference aims to continuously attract and aggregate resources for the development of maritime industry through joint efforts, and create an interactive platform for exchanges and exhibitions with prominent industry characteristics and various academic science and technology results actively. In line with the trend of development in the world maritime field, we should jointly promote the openness, standardization, upgrading and transformation of international maritime affairs, link up with the construction of the ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’, deepen international maritime mutually beneficial cooperation and further promote the vitality and prosperity of China's shipping industry in the process of structural reform.
