I had the pleasure of hosting and moderating the 14th Singapore Maritime Lecture, organised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. This lecture is a signature event of the annual Singapore Maritime Week, where the international maritime community gather to discuss and exchange ideas to bring the sector forward.
This year, the Singapore Maritime Lecture was brought online to reach a wider international audience. We were joined by over 400 participants from more than 20 countries. Guests included ambassadors, the IMO secretary-general, maritime authorities and senior leaders from the industry.
We had the chance to hear from Mr Ravi Menon, MD of the Monetary Authority of Singapore as he gave us his keynote address on how to build a resilient economy in a post covid-19 world. Mr Menon shared some brilliant insights on what it takes to build a resilient digital workforce and resilient supply chains despite the challenges of this pandemic.
We also witnessed the MOU signing between MPA and DBS Bank, which is geared at accelerating the innovation and digitalisation of financial services and payments across Singapore’s maritime sector.
The lecture was rounded off by a robust discussion with Mr Menon, Mr Wan Chee Fong, PSA’s regional CEO for Middle East South Asia and Head of Group Business Development and Mr Steve Saxon, Partner at McKinsey and Company. They shared their insights on how maritime companies can rally together to overcome current digitalisation and workforce challenges, the impact and risks of supply chain regionalization and how the integration of financial services can be better applied to the maritime sector.
All in, it was a vibrant discussion and I am glad to have been a part of this exchange of ideas.
The future for the maritime industry looks bright despite headwinds and as Mr Menon said, “resilience means being knocked down several times but getting back up each time and more”. A big thank you to our panellists for that enlightening afternoon.