Benefits of World
Maritime Day…
The United Nations (UN), via the
International Maritime Organization (IMO), created World Maritime Day (WMD) to
celebrate the international maritime industry’s contribution towards the world’s
economy, especially in shipping.
The event’s date varies by year
and country but is generally in the last week of September. For example in
2015, it was celebrated on Thursday the 24th of September, and next
year (2016) it will be celebrated on Thursday, 22nd September.
World Maritime Day focuses
attention on the importance of shipping safety, maritime security and the
marine environment and to emphasize a particular aspect of IMO's work. The day also features a special message from
the IMO’s secretary-general, which is backed up by a discussion paper on the
selected subject in more detail. The theme for 2015 was "Maritime
education and training", focusing attention on the importance of adequate
education and training to ensure a safe, secure and sustainable shipping
industry.
World Maritime Day is celebrated
in many countries worldwide, including India. Special events and activities are
held to celebrate the day, including a symposium/seminar on the theme of the
event as conveyed by IMO.
Since 2005, in addition to the
official IMO celebrations held at IMO Headquarters in London, there has been a
parallel event hosted by a Member State. This year’s parallel event was held in
Japan on the 20th and 21st July 2015.
The WMD theme for this year was “Maritime
Education and Training”. The Theme was adopted to focus attention on the wider
spectrum of maritime education and training, in particular its adequacy and
quality, as the bedrock of a safe and secure shipping industry, which needs to
preserve the quality, practical skills and competence of qualified human resources,
in order to ensure its sustainability.
The 1978 STCW Convention and
Code, as amended (STCW 2010), set the international benchmark for the training and
education of seafarers. While compliance with its standards is essential for
serving on board ships, the skills and competence of seafarers, and indeed the
human element ashore can only be adequately underpinned, updated and maintained
through effective maritime education and training.
The IMO symposium held on the 24th
of September on the topic: Shipping’s future needs people: Is global maritime
education and training on course?” The IMO symposium provided an opportunity for
a discussion on the future of maritime education and training.
All speakers at the symposium
stressed the need to raise the profile and the image of shipping in general, in
order to attract young people into the maritime professions. Other speakers
brought in the paucity of training berths and some speakers raised the
important issue of ongoing quality assessment of seafarer training courses as
required by STCW 2010.
This year the parallel event was
held in Japan on the 20th and 21st of July, 2015.
Maritime education and training needs- now and in the future – were the focus
of a high-level international symposium. Delegates also visited maritime
heritage sites in Yokohama and witnessed seafarer training demonstrations on
the sail training ships Kaiwo Maru and the training ship Taisei Maru. This was
followed by a special session addressing the future needs of the industry,
which aimed to discuss how educational organizations could go about educating
and training high quality maritime human resources, which are necessary for
quality shipping and how they could attract the interest of future generations towards
the seas and the oceans.
IMO has recently decided on the
theme for World Maritime Day 2016, namely, “Shipping indispensable to the world”.
Next year the Parallel Event will be held in Turkey.
“Today, around 90 percent of world
trade is carried by the international shipping industry. Without shipping the
import and export of goods on the scale necessary to sustain the modern world
would not be possible. And seaborne trade continuous to expand, bringing
benefits for consumers across the world through competitive freight costs. Yet
the fact remains that most of the world’s population is not aware of the vital
role shipping plays in their everyday lives”, said IMO Secretary General.
There are more than 50,000
merchant ships trading internationally, transporting every kind of cargo. The world
fleet is registered in over 150 nations and manned by more than a million seafarers
of virtually every nationality.
In India, we benefit from the
symposium/seminar, the theme and message from IMO which keeps us abreast of international
developments.
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