On course for future challenges
My time as the Regional Manager for IBIA Asia has come to an end as we emerge strong after the storm
On 18 March this year, I was thrilled to meet in person with industry colleagues in Singapore at APM (Asia Pacific Maritime) 2022.
We had a really useful discussion on Future Fuels in a session moderated by Simon Neo, Executive Director of bunker consultancy firm SDE International, where my fellow panellists were Douglas Raitt, Regional Advisory Services Manager at Lloyd’s Register, Sachin Gupta, Director for Chemical Products at Wilhelmsen Ships Service, Jan-Paul de Wilde, Head of Department, Decarbonization, Energy Transition & Innovation at RINA and Chris Chatterton, Chief Operating Officer at the Methanol Institute.
IBIA supports the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore’s (MPA) recently published Maritime Singapore Decarbonisation Blueprint: Working Towards 2050, which is available on the MPA website. As I said during the panel discussion the blueprint is a good one, and we need to let the rest of the world know how Singapore plans to achieve decarbonisation. IBIA will be available to provide training of personnel, an area where we can support Singapore’s decarbonisation journey constructively.
Currently the IBIA Asia office offers mandatory training for the bunker sector in Singapore with courses that have been approved and certified by the MPA. These are: Singapore Standard SS 600:2014 + SS 648:2019 – 2 Days Basic Training for new Bunker Surveyors and Cargo Officers and Singapore Standard SS 600:2014 + SS 648:2019 – 2 Days Advanced Training for new Bunker Surveyors and Cargo Officers. We also offer specialised training for the bunker sector in Singapore.
IBIA Asia has always been membership-oriented and focused on increasing the number of members from our region, and we have achieved an increase of 5 to 6% annually. We have also encouraged our existing and new members to take up the 15% discount available for a three-year membership, which will also act as a hedge against a potential annual rise in membership fees.
If you are interested in becoming part of the bunker community through IBIA membership or interested in the bunkering training offered by IBIA Asia, I encourage you to contact ibia@ibia.net.
As I write this, I am about to leave IBIA to take up new challenges. I sincerely thank all the IBIA members who have supported me and the IBIA Asia team during the recent difficult times and helped us ride through the COVID 19 pandemic storm. IBIA has now set course for the future destinations of Digitalisation and Decarbonisation. We still have many uncertainties ahead of our voyage, but we are moving in the right direction.
Alex Tang, MIPM CMarSci MIMarEST
Regional Manager: Asia
E regionalmanagerasia@ibia.net
W www.ibia.net