Senior representatives from the government of Singapore and Panama have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen their maritime relations.
Under the agreement, the maritime authorities of Singapore and Panama will cooperate on a wide range of maritime issues including the promotion of the use and acceptance of ship’s electronic certificates to facilitate port state inspections, the exercise of port state control (PSC) inspections by both countries, as well as personnel exchange.
Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Senior Minister of State for Health of the Republic of Singapore led the first high-level delegation from Singapore to Panama under the new government of Panama.
Singapore and Panama are ranking in the top five ship registries in the world.
Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Senior Minister of State for Health of the Republic of Singapore, “This cooperation will strengthen maritime relations between our two countries. It will also yield significant benefits through speedier port clearances for vessels registered with our two countries calling at our ports.
Araúz said, “Panama’s and Singapore’s maritime sectors have always had excellent relations but this MoU between our countries will address important technical issues for both Ship Registries.
Singapore has retained its place at the top of the Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development (ISCD) Index.
A recent Port Technology technical paper explored Singapore’s mega terminals
In a statement, the Baltic Exchange said the index is based on a series of objective factors including port facilities and throughput, as well as depth and breadth of professional maritime support services.
In the six years, it has been published, there has been a general rise in the performance of Asian and Middle Eastern locations – of the three European hubs in the top five in 2014, London, third this year, is the only one that remains.
Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai make up the other best five performers, with Rotterdam, Hamburg, New York-New Jersey, Houston and Athens also present in the top 10
