Opening Remarks by Senior Minister of State For Transport Mr Chee Hong Tat at the Maritime Singapore Connect Office MaritimeONE Digital Challenge Award Ceremony

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.     I am happy to see so many young people here today, and to have this opportunity to share with all of you about the exciting opportunities and possibilities that Maritime Singapore has to offer. 141 students from various educational institutions and disciplines participated in this year’s MaritimeONE Digital Challenge (MDC).

2.     Among the 9 finalist teams, we had participants from our autonomous universities and polytechnics, majoring in different subjects such as logistics and supply chain management, data science and analytics, mathematics and statistics, human resources, and digital game art and design. This is a reflection of how the maritime sector is multi-faceted and requires a diverse range of skills and talents. 

3.     Likewise, the sector also presents many different opportunities which can cater to a wide range of interests from young Singaporeans. During the finals shown in the wrap-up video earlier, many of you said that you had a good experience learning more about the maritime sector, and some of you discovered something new about the sector that you did not know before you took part in this competition. This is a good outcome.

4.     We want to expose our young people to the sector, and hopefully you will find that some part of the maritime sector offers you a role that is a good match for your interests. For example, digitalisation is a big driving force for many industries, including the maritime sector. This will require not only a deep understanding of the practical operational issues that the industry faces, but also the technical knowhow and knowledge to develop digital solutions to tackle these challenges.

5.     One cannot do this without an understanding of the operational issues and knowledge about the customer. But without expertise in the digital domain, we will not be able to offer digital solutions to companies either. It would be difficult for any single individual to have all the knowledge and skills required.

6.     Hence, teamwork is important. The key to success will be to build diverse teams that have a broad range of capabilities, experiences, and ideas. Our students will know this, because you have had first-hand experience of this through your participation in the MaritimeONE Digital Challenge.

7.     Three companies from the maritime ecosystem provided real-world digitalisation challenges that require customised and creative solutions. The participating teams had to draw on the strengths and skillsets of your team members, and for the team to work well together, demonstrating unity in diversity. 

8.     For example, Maersk asked for a data-powered solution to enable end-to-end visibility of their warehouse operations. The winning team, Visibilité, developed an application that provides timestamps for each step of the process, with details of the cargo involved and who handled each task. 

9.      PSA Cargo Solutions requested for a way to help their customers identify the best shipment routes, depending on whether they want to prioritise reducing costs, quicker transit times, lower carbon emissions, or other considerations. When you set your priorities differently, the optimal route may be different. Winning team, S16,  developed a dashboard application that recommends the optimal route based on users’ input, balancing between carbon emissions and transit time. 

10.    RightShip wanted a way to maintain the human connection between its employees as hybrid and remote working arrangements become more commonplace. The winning team Alpaca developed a game platform that allows employees to select their battleships and set off on an adventure. The platform has features that encourage engagement and team bonding.

11.    I look forward to hearing more about the innovative proposals from the winning teams during their presentations.

12.    Allow me to conclude with a call to action for our students, to consider starting your careers with Maritime Singapore.

13.    The maritime industry keeps our world moving. We saw this during the pandemic, when essential supplies were required. Sea transport is critical for economies and communities around the world to access the goods that we all need to survive and thrive. It is a very important sector that plays a crucial role, both for businesses and for countries.

14.    Singapore is the world’s largest transhipment port. Shipping lines use Singapore as a stop to rearrange their cargo, to optimise how the cargo should be transported in order to reach different destinations more efficiently.

15.    Singapore is a critical node in global supply chains, because we help to make the flow of goods cheaper, faster, and more environmentally sustainable. Transhipment is more environmentally sustainable because it greatly reduces the number of ships and shipping routes needed to connect every source country to every destination country. 

16.    Instead of having one ship to carry cargo point-to-point between every source and every destination, Singapore enables cargo from different sources heading to the same destination to be consolidated. This is a lot more efficient, cutting the number of shipping routes required, and therefore requiring less time, money and fuel to transport goods.

17.    We are also a vibrant international maritime centre, with a thriving ecosystem of maritime businesses providing services such as ship financing, maritime insurance, maritime technology and maritime law. We offer as many of such services as possible so that shipping and maritime companies that do business in Singapore will have access to the whole range of different services.

18.    Maritime Singapore welcomes talented individuals, such as yourselves, who are looking for a career in an industry that is purposeful, impactful, and growing. We will need more talent, across different disciplines,as we pursue the next bound of development for Maritime Singapore, including pushing the frontiers on digitalisation and sustainability.  

19.    We welcome you to be part of this exciting sector, and make Maritime your Port of Call.

20.    I would like to end my speech by thanking Maersk, PSA Cargo Solutions and RightShip for providing the opportunities for our students to learn more about the maritime sector.

21.    Congratulations to all our MDC teams, in particular Team Visibilité, Team S16 and Team Alpaca on your winning proposals.

22.    Thank you.