welcome
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Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very warm welcome to you all, the speakers, NI members, guests, and future mariners. A special thanks to the Director of Marine, Ms. Masie Cheng, for taking time out to participate at this very important seminar. A big thanks to our overseas speakers, amongst us today we have 3 speakers who have travelled from the UK especially for this seminar, a long way from home. Thank you to all the other speakers, for taking time out from their busy schedules to deliver thought provoking presentations, which inspire us to think of changes in the future and of the plausible controls needed.
We would like to thank the sponsors for generously supporting us, in both the good and not so good times. Without their support the Nautical Institute would not be able to do its current activities of supporting charities, i.e. The mission of seafarers and the sponsoring the local Hong Kong cadets. We are also able to arrange evening cocktails presentations on topics which are of significant importance to the local maritime community.
As you are all aware the topic of today seminar is “Competencies of a future Mariner”. The business definition of competency is “A cluster of related abilities, commitments, knowledge, and skills that enable a person (or an organization) to act effectively in a job or situation.” Competence indicates sufficiency of knowledge and skills that enable someone to act in a wide variety of situations.”
Today we have with us, individuals connected in some way to the marine industry for over a century (actually perhaps 120 years as I learnt over our dinner yesterday) – some over the past 60 years and hopefully some that may be associated for the coming 60 years. So what changes have happened or are likely to, over the past years or in the future in terms of seafarers competence. We are eager to listen, learn and discuss.
The qualification, training and skill sets needed for today’s mariners is evolving, and will continue to evolve as more technology is put into use on ships. The design of the equipment, related changes in regulations, compliance and the ‘human factor’ all need to be considered.
The manner in which ships are operated now and in the future, changes in design, the associated risks and legal consequences, and the necessary training that is going to be required.
I would like to take this opportunity to invite members, old and new, to join the NI committee. We would also like to invite non-members to join NI membership. We are now able to process membership applications locally, forms are available at the entrance table. Do feel free to ask any of the committee members about the application process.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the committee members, especially John, Petty and Luca in putting up a great number of hours to ensure that all arrangements for the seminar were in place. Also a special thanks to Dora from AWT and Kiana from Anglo Eastern for providing great secretarial support. Some of our committee members had to travel on very short notice. It is a blessing to have a very supporting committee, thanks to Alan, Aalok and Amit to help out on short notice. Thanks to Donal for keeping the mails going despite his busy schedule. Thanks to Star Cruises for all the fantastic arrangements. To my boss Capt. Chawla and the home boss my wife.
A request to all the guests to please get thoroughly involved, and ask all the questions they can think off. We are sure the speaker would be happy to answer. Looking forward to a great seminar.
Thank you.
Capt. Vikrant Malhotra MNI
Chairman NI Hong Kong Branch