By Priam F. Nepomuceno
MANILA, Nov. 27 (PNA) — To beef up the number of seafarer officers in international merchant marine service, International Maritime Organization (IMO) secretary general Koji Sekimizu said that the there is a strong need for maritime stakeholders to make the profession more attractive to the new generation.
“This is a real challenge and further effort must be made to bring new generations into seafaring as a profession. The seafarer’s life must be made more attractive. Simply improving the image will not work unless the younger generations see some actual benefits from serving the shipping industry,” he said.
This is in line with reports that intense seaborne trade by the coming years will require an additional 850,000 seafarer officers by 2030.
However, Sekimizu said that growth is now without challenge.
“If the current fleet were to increase in size by 70 percent between now and 2030, as was predicted by many participants based on the growth trend of the last five decades, the current number of 500,000 officers needs to be increased to 850,000,” he said.
“If we assume that half the existing officers will retire by 2030, that means 600,000 officers would need to be recruited and trained from now, with an annual requirement for officers in the order of some 40,000,” Sekimizu said. (PNA)