TransOman Conference Focuses on Maritime Issues

The second day of the TransOman Conference focused on related maritime issues, other than developments and challenges being faced by the sector, via coverage of green port initiatives, maritime skill building and technological solutions and strategies by expert speakers related to the field, during the second half session of the second day of the TransOman Conference 2012 which took place on 29th May, 2012.

Heading session two of the second day of the Conference, Mr. Ricardo Sanz, Head of Civil Works Area, Isdefe, Spain (Systems Engineering for the Defence of Spain) in Green Ports Initiative in Spain took attendees through the objectives of green ports namely emissions reduction, reduction of the overall energy consumption, encouragement of a distributed energy generation and optimization in energy management. He also covered environment targets in a green port which includes waste management, supplies and consumption control, emissions reduction in the port area and port environmental management He explained the concept of green ports initiative project undertaken by his organization Isdefe via Improvements to the Rota Naval Station. The port of Rota Naval Station is the first Spanish Green Port, and it serves as a reference model for other port facilities in the civilian context.

Mr. Julian Barona, Acting Head of Department-Ports, Shipping and Transport Management and Mr. Mathijs Wagemans, Acting Head of Department Short Courses, International Maritime College of Oman (IMCO) delivered a joint presentation entitled Bridging the gap between current skills levels and future needs in the Maritime and Logistic sector in the GCC Area. Mr. Wagemans observed that there is an increasing demand for trained workforce within the Maritime and Logistics sector and that people need to start realizing there is a need not just for academic scholars, but people with hands on skills and experience. He said that in order to train the existing workforce one required training and that training would only be effective if one took things like background into consideration, as well as the use of proper training tools and accurate methods. He concluded by saying that if all of these would be accomplished together, one would be able to bridge the gap between what one needs and what one gets.

According to Ms. Katharina Albert, Managing Director, SimPlan Dubai, speaker for the topic Technology, Strategies and cutting edge solutions for logistics and port operations, the TransOman Conference 2012 showed her several challenges, the same she commented of which can be addressed by new technologies, simulating better strategic planning to communicate concepts and bringing everyone together to make a more efficient process chain. For instance while talking about the training aspect, one would have to train the management on new technologies and encourage them to use the new technologies and implement them, after the consultant part had been dealt with, where the process of implementation had to be achieved not just talked about she said. Being the last speaker for the day Ms. Albert brought the conference to a final close remarking that she was pleased that the Conference saw the right players get together as she felt that formation of new alliances would help one tackle the problems and increase the efficiencies pertaining to the sector.

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Source: TransOman Conference, May 30, 2012