Speech by Senior Minister of State for Transport, Mr Chee Hong Tat at the Singapore Maritime Week 2022 Marinetech Conference Welcome Session

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.     A very warm welcome to everyone who has joined us physically and virtually at this MarineTech conference.

Overview

2.     The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of new technologies by businesses and individuals and opened up new collaborations across geographies and sectors. This provides opportunities for Maritime Technology or MarineTech companies to start-up and scale-up.

3.     With support from our tripartite partners and research institutions over the years, Singapore is now home to a thriving MarineTech ecosystem. We are a hub for maritime technology producers and clients to meet. Many global MarineTech companies have established and are growing their presence in Singapore to support international shipping groups based here.

4.     Our PIER71TM acceleration programme has nurtured a growing maritime technology start-up cluster and accelerated the growth of over 75 start-ups thus far. Close to half of PIER71TM applicants come from outside Singapore, including the US, Europe, and different parts of Asia. This international element has been one of our strengths, and we must remain open and connected to the world to succeed as a global maritime centre.

5.     Our efforts have borne fruit, with Singapore being ranked first overall in the Maritime Technology category in the latest DNV-Menon Leading Maritime Cities of the World report. According to a report published by Inmarsat, Singapore’s MarineTech market revenue is expected to double from US$2.4 billion in 2021 to US$4.8 billion by 2030. We will build on this momentum to achieve our aspiration of becoming the Silicon Valley for MarineTech, focusing on digitalisation, innovation, and partnerships.

Digitalisation

6.     Digitalisation is critical to addressing immediate supply chain challenges. It can provide greater visibility on vessel movements and cargo flows, and strengthen supply chain resilience. MPA and the industry have been pushing ahead with digitalisation at three levels.

7.     First, at the port level, we launched digitalPORT@SGTM in June 2020 as a single digital portal that streamlined transactions between government agencies and businesses for port clearances. We are on track to complete Phase 2 of digitalPORT@SGTM by second half of 2022, which will link digitalPORT@SGTM with port community systems and other commercial platforms. This will make it more convenient for port and marine service providers, and allow better planning and coordination to reduce vessel turnaround times.

8.     At the industry level, we are linking up the maritime community with the wider supply chain ecosystem in Singapore through Singapore Trade Data Exchange or SGTraDex, a digital infrastructure that facilitates efficient and secured data sharing across traders, carriers, port operators, service providers, and financial institutions. The initial use cases include trade finance fraud detection, container flow node decongestion, and bunkering optimisation. MPA and Trafigura are co-leading the bunkering use case and are currently supporting SGTradex to conduct trials with 50 organisations. Jurong Port is now leading another use case on ship supplies & lighterage optimisation.

9.     At the global level, we launched the digitalOCEANS^TM initiative to align to IMO’s standards on data exchange and to ensure inter-operability of international data platforms. Last year, we launched Port Clearance API specifications, and piloted these API linkages with our international partners.

10.    With the insights gleaned from these trials, we have decided to take one step further with the development of OCEANS-X, as announced by DPM Heng Swee Keat yesterday. OCEANS-X will be an API marketplace that brings maritime and trade data providers, consumers, and app developers together, enabling them to search or discover data easily, subscribe to the relevant APIs, build maritime apps, and deploy them quickly. In this way, digitalisation will be inclusive and a force multiplier for resilient global supply chains.

Innovation

11.    Let me now touch on innovation. Beyond near term supply chain challenges, we must also look ahead and grow through innovation as well as business and workforce transformation.

12.    A good example is Jurong Port (JP), Singapore’s multipurpose port terminal operator, which handles general and bulk cargoes such as cement, steel, and petroleum products. JP’s transformation aims to create value and enhance the resilience of cargo supply chains. It embarked on the development of the Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) ecosystem, where aggregate discharge, storage, and batching plants are consolidated and brought closer to waterfront facilities. This will be ready in 3Q 2022. It is estimated to have immediate cost savings of about 4 per cent across the construction supply chain, as well as wider benefits like improving land productivity by 60 per cent, reducing manpower dependency by 40 per cent, and eliminating 600,000 truck trips per annum.

13.    Since 2011, MPA has been supporting JP’s innovation efforts through the MPA-JP MOU, providing co-funding support for projects such as side-loaders for the transportation of steel cargo, and the development of the Lighter Terminal Connect Platform to facilitate the matching of lighter boats and truck deliveries at our lighter terminals. JP has always welcome start-ups to testbed their solutions by providing access to actual port operations. Through the PIER71 initiative, JP had also partnered local start-ups such as Groundup.ai to develop machine learning solution for manpower and equipment deployment for cargo handling, as well as leveraging on video analytics to ensure safe operations in cargo holds.

14.    MPA and JP will be renewing their R&D MOU for another 5 years, with a programme budget of $28 million to focus on projects in four key areas – automation & mechanisation; sustainability and green fuels; digitalisation; and safety & security. The projects funded in this new MOU would support the next lap of JP’s transformation, strengthening their core business in cement, steel, and lighterage while growing new business verticals such as green marine fuels to support Singapore’s maritime decarbonisation goals.

15.    Another emerging area of innovation is the use of maritime drones. After we launched the Maritime Drone Estate at last year’s Singapore Maritime Week, nine companies have come on board to testbed their drone solutions at the site. These technical trials have given us confidence of the safety of drone operations beyond visual line of sight. As the next step in maritime drone development, Skyports, Thome Ship Management, and Wilhelmsen will be signing an MOU to scale up commercial trials in our port waters. These trials will provide insights for commercial players and regulatory agencies to formulate operational parameters such as service standards, turnaround times, and maintenance regimes for maritime drones.

16.    This is an exciting development and I hope more drone operators would join in. I have confidence that in the near future, we could see regular deliveries of critical supplies to vessels at our anchorages via maritime drones, which will be cheaper, faster, and better for the environment.

Partnerships

17.    To maximise our chances of success in digitalisation and innovation, we need to pool our collective knowledge, expertise, and resources to leave our comfort zones, take calculated risks, and explore uncharted waters together. I welcome the collaboration between Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Google Cloud to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI)I to optimise their container shipping operations and enhance customer experience. The use of AI and Machine Learning technologies build on the digitalisation foundation that maritime companies have embarked on over the past few years, as part of their transformation to enable higher productivity and better service levels.

18.    This collaboration aligns well with our broader ambitions under the Maritime AI R&D programme. It is also an opportunity to deepen the linkages between the maritime and ICT sectors, and create more high-value MarineTech jobs. This is also an opportunity for us to attract more young people to join the sector, and also to attract more ladies to join the maritime sector. Every year, we hold the Smart Port Challenge, where we look at promising start-ups in MarineTech. In the past two years, the winning teams were both led by women.

19.    In 2020, the company that won was BeeX, led by Grace Chia. BeeX focuses on designing manufacturing and deploying autonomous maritime systems at sea, to solve the challenges of underwater operations. In 2021, the winning team was a company called WeavAir, led by Natalia Mykhaylova, who was originally from Ukraine and she now has a company in Singapore. WeavAir helps industries to access insurance claims more accurately, and simplifies claims management processes by harnessing and analysing data from a range of sources, such as operations, sensors, and also loss prevention reports. These two examples illustrate that with technology, we are bringing about new jobs, new opportunities, and this will make the maritime sector even more inclusive, even more exciting, and hopefully even more attractive to young people.

20.    Another area where partnerships have flourished is in maritime additive manufacturing. MPA, together with the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC) and the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA), have been jointly supporting the growth of the maritime additive manufacturing ecosystem since 2018. We are now seeing some initial success with class-approved marine parts being deployed on vessels for live trials from the Joint Industry Programme (JIP) that MPA awarded in 2020. And some of these parts that have been produced using maritime additive manufacturing, could be delivered by drones, to the vessels in our waters. The participants in the trial have said that this was an efficient and cost-effective way of meeting some of their requirements, because they do not have to wait for specific parts to arrive from overseas and can get it manufactured using 3D printing and have it delivered using drones. All these would not have been possible without technology.

21.    The Joint Industry Programme have strengthened the capabilities and confidence of its participants. I am happy to welcome one new collaboration between Singapore Polytechnic and Molyworks Materials to develop custom metal alloys and additive manufacturing processes, research on materials recycling for maritime use, and develop training programmes for our workers.

22.    In addition, we will be launching the “Maritime Singapore Additive Manufacturing Landscape Report 2022”, which is a joint publication on the latest developments in the maritime additive manufacturing space.

23.    Another exciting area where partnerships will be important is cybersecurity. As we digitalise more of our processes, we open up more nodes that could be exploited, including those with capabilities to mount sophisticated attacks on critical infrastructure. Cybersecurity is part of our overall security.

24.    Singapore has been stepping up our efforts to promote maritime cybersecurity. It is a requirement for maritime cyber risk management to be incorporated in the safety management systems of companies operating Singapore-flagged vessels. The Maritime Cluster Fund also provides co-funding support for cyber security training courses to ensure that our workers are aware of such risks and have the knowledge and skills to protect themselves from these attacks.

25.    On the international front, MPA has been collaborating with its counterparts through the Port Authorities Chief Information Officer Cybersecurity Network to share information and best practices. I am glad that SSA and MPA are signing an MOU to collaborate on further advancing Singapore’s maritime cybersecurity capabilities. SSA will form an industry-led Maritime Cybersecurity Roundtable to explore new initiatives to strengthen our cybersecurity defence, promote information sharing, and develop maritime cybersecurity skills and talent for Maritime Singapore over the next three years.

Conclusion

26.    To conclude, MarineTech has much potential to be a key driver of growth and transformation for Maritime Singapore in the coming years. We look forward to work with developers, entrepreneurs, industry practitioners from Singapore and around the world to innovate new solutions, develop new business models and discover new breakthroughs in this exciting blue ocean.

27.    Thank you.