On 21 December 2021, China Maritime Day Forum-the 8th China International Forum on Seafarers was successfully held in a fully open and live streaming way. Xu Zuyuan, goodwill ambassador of International Maritime Organization(IMO) and former vice minister of Ministry of Transport(MOT), Yan Xiaobo, secretary general of China Institute of Navigation(CIN), Shou Tao, deputy director of Maritime Safety Administration(MSA) of MOT, Guy Platten, secretary general of International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), Quah Ley Hoon, director of Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Sun Yuqing, president of Dalian Maritime University(DMU), and other leaders and experts expressed their views and offered advice and suggestions on the pandemic and the seafarers future development, focusing on the theme of "Optimizing the Development Environment of Seafarers and Building Core Strength of Shipping". This forum attracted great concern from the industry, and more than 46,000 netizens watched the streaming meeting and had a heated discussion in the whole process.
The forum was hosted by CIN, Kunming Municipal People's Government the Waterborne Transport Research Institute of MOT and China Communications Construction Group Co., Ltd, and organized by MSA of MOT and the Chinese Seamen & Construction Workers’ Union, and China Maritime Service Centre. 11 heavyweight guests of the industry delivered speeches and expressed their views and suggestions with frontline seafarers on ocean-going vessels on voyage through satellite connection.
Senior captain Xu Zuyuan, goodwill ambassador of IMO and former vice minister of MOT, expressed cordial greetings and great respect to seafarers who had been on the frontline of shipping and fighting against the epidemic. He called on government agencies and social institutions to pay more attention to the problems of shortage of seafarers and structural imbalance, take effective measures, respect the value of seafarers, concern their occupational health and labor safety protection, attach great importance to safeguarding their fundamental rights, improve their labor compensation, attract more young people to join the team so as to provide an important strategic resource security for building China into a country with strong shipping and numerous seafarers.
Yan Xiaobo, secretary general of CIN, pointed out in his speech that COVID-19 has increased uncertainties of seafarers' development, and they are also facing many new challenges. For example, how to better evaluate seafarers, protect their rights and interests and raise their status? What are the new changes brought by the epidemic for the international seafarers, and how to better balance the supply and demand of them? How can we improve the quality of seafarers to better adapt to the new development trend of shipping? These are the common problems facing the development of seafarers around the world, and these problems are also the focuses of the China International Seafarers Forum.
Shou Tao, deputy director general of MSA of MOT, delivered a speech on the theme of "Building a High-qualified Seafarers' Team to Promote High-quality Development of Shipping". Shou Tao called on the whole industry to pay tribute to the seafarers, who are warriors in the epidemic and the future of shipping industry. He pointed out that MSA of MOT has always been very concerned about the work and life of seafarers, and has made many positive efforts, such as organizing and issuing a series of policies, regulations and convenience-for-people measures, and helping solve the real puzzles including crew change, vaccination, training and examination. In view of the current concerns of the industry on crew change and emergency relief, Shou Tao introduced the document Notice on Further Improving the Epidemic Prevention and Control of Seafarers on International Ships, recently issued by the comprehensive group of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council. He said that under the leadership of MOT, we should actively cooperate with all related departments to meet the requirements asked in the document, promote the implementation of crew change, emergency rescue for sick and wounded seafarers and immigration segregation and other measures, ensure all the necessary crew change and medical assistance, effectively protect the legitimate rights of seafarers, and guarantee the unimpeded international maritime logistics supply chains. Looking forward, MSA of MOT will take the theme of promoting the construction of high-qualified seafarers, insist on attracting, retaining and developing talents, pay more attention to optimizing the development environment and improving the governance effectiveness. Starting from the following five aspects, such as improving the policies and laws, enhancing the comprehensive quality of crew, strengthening the security of crew rights and interests, promoting the collaboration of governance and improving the service efficiency, we will care for seafarers with more sincere affection, and serve them with more pragmatic measures. We will work hard to create a fairer future for them.
Guy Platten, secretary general of ICS, from the perspective of world shipping, gave some information about the development of seafarers around the world, especially the opportunities and challenges brought by the epidemic and the trend of larger, more intelligent and eco-friendly shipping.
Quah Ley Hoon, director of Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, talked on two aspects: firstly, how to continue to support seafarers' development in the midst of the COVID-19, and Singapore has made efforts in safe crew change procedures, establishing the Working Group of Shipping Tripartite Alliance Recovery Fund (STAR) and using new technologies. Secondly, how to re-examine the role of seafarers in the new normal of shipping transformation.
Sun Yuqing, president of Dalian Maritime University, gave three suggestions for the training of future shipping personnel. Firstly, to improve the training program for maritime major. The curriculum system should be built scientifically, and the proportional structure of mathematics and general education courses should be optimized, so as to adapt to the diversified needs of talents. Secondly, to reform the training mode of maritime talents. We should strengthen the concept of "diversified talents, solid foundation, strong ability and innovative nature". We should expand students' study autonomy and choice, and encourage them to learn knowledge from different disciplines and majors. Thirdly, to promote the teaching reform of maritime majors. We should promote the change of curriculum teaching from the traditional knowledge-oriented approach to one that focuses on value shaping, ability development and knowledge transfer.
Hou Liping, deputy general manager of COSCO Shipping Seafarer Management Co., Ltd, focusing on the core role of seafarers for shipping enterprises and combining with the company's practice in epidemic prevention and control and team building, he gave six suggestions on giving priority to ensure crew change, further increasing seafarers' sense of career fulfillment, focusing on the leading role of representatives and increasing seafarers' sense of career honor, providing compassionate care to increase seafarers' sense of career happiness, implementing the specific subsidy policy for maritime vocational education as soon as possible, and encouraging shipping enterprises to build their own crew teams.
Liu Rusong, general manager of Guangzhou Haishun Shipping Co., Ltd of China Merchants Group, gave a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the development of seafarers under the influence of the epidemic from three aspects: "new opportunities, new mechanisms and new vitality", and issued an invitation to the whole industry to better cultivate, use, serve, protect and publicize seafarers.
Zhuang Wei, general manager of the Baltic and International Maritime Council in Asia, discussed issues related to crew change and epidemic prevention measures, and also analyzed the global demand, supply and training of senior seafarers in the next five years, including the impact of COVID-19. It provided a basis for ship owners, ship management companies and seafarer service providers to formulate strategies.
Shi Zhubin, president of Jiangsu Shipping College, shared his views on the theme of “Promoting the Cooperation and Development of International Maritime Vocational Education along the Belt and Road”. He pointed out that it goes without saying that the international cooperation in maritime education is important, and he hoped that the maritime education in all countries will be significantly improved under the active cooperation among the countries along the "Belt and Road".
Wang Kai, president of General Hospital of the Yangtze River Shipping, introduced how to build an intelligent crew health service system of "Internet + telemedicine + health service" to provide health security for crew members throughout their career cycle, and to use the ship's portable monitor to check on board and track remotely about the basic health indicators of crew members, so as to get the information about their health status in real time.
During the forum, a video call was also made with the crew of China Merchants Group's ships on voyage via satellite connection. Captain Huang Xianyuan introduced some information and put forward earnest opinions and suggestions on behalf of frontline seafarers on the development of the industry.