Oral Reply by Senior Minister of State for Transport Dr Lam Pin Min to Parliamentary Question on MPA's Vessel Traffic Information System

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Transport with regard to the two recent collisions of ships in our territorial waters 

a.     whether there will be reviews carried out on our Vessel Traffic Information System to enhance the navigational safety and security in our waters; and

b.     whether the Ministry will be checking for weaknesses in our sea defence against potential attacks by terrorists in this area.

Reply by Senior Minister of State for Transport Dr Lam Pin Min:

1.     Mr Speaker, Sir, allow me to answer part (a) of the question, as part (b) has been earlier addressed in the Ministry of Defence's reply to PQ 1461.

2.     The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) operates the Vessel Traffic Information System (VTIS), which integrates data from various sources including radars, the Automatic Identification System, Closed Circuit Television System, Very High Frequency Communications System and ship databases, to provide an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the traffic in the Singapore Strait and Singapore port waters.  With the capability to concurrently track more than 10,000 vessels, the VTIS enables MPA to provide timely information and advice to help vessels transit safely through the Singapore Strait, as well as manage traffic within our port waters, where there are some 1,000 vessels at any one time.

3.     Enhancing navigational safety is an important priority for MPA.  MPA carries out regular enhancements to its VTIS which was installed in 2011 and upgraded early this year.

4.     Beyond technical capabilities, MPA also seeks to improve the practice of good seamanship and advocate a safety-first culture at sea. MPA established the National Maritime Safety at Sea Council to drive such efforts. MPA also organises conferences, workshops and briefings on navigational safety under its Safety@Sea campaign.