Singapore and Norway Renew Maritime Ties

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the Research Council of Norway (RCN) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to renew their bilateral agreement on maritime research and development, education, and training for another three years, to 2015.


The fifth MPA-RCN MOU was signed by MPA Chief Executive Lam Yi Young and RCN Director-General Arvid Hallén.


Mr Lam said there is growing collaboration between Singapore and Norway in maritime research and development, and this has benefited both countries.


“Building on the success of past projects under the MOU, we look forward to setting up further maritime research and development programmes with Norwegian institutions in the years to come,” he said.


Meanwhile, Mr Arvid Hallén said an increasing number of Norwegian maritime companies have established their presence with headquarters for operation and strategic coordination in Singapore in the last few years.


“Norwegian research and development institutes and universities see Singapore as a strong collaboration knowledge hub for the future development into the Asian market,” he said.


“Research and innovation is global, and I believe that Norway and Singapore represent two of the most complete maritime clusters in the world which is a good basis for joint collaboration,” he added.


A Norwegian delegation is currently in Singapore attending the Singapore Maritime Week, the joint MPA-RCN workshop on Green Shipping, and Offshore Operation and Navigation.


The MPA-RCN MOU, first signed in 2000, is in line with MPA’s commitment to leverage research and development as a key enabler in the growth and development of the Singapore maritime cluster.


They have co-operated in research in areas such as maritime environment, sustainable energy technology, offshore and marine engineering, and maritime operations and info-communications technology.


One of these research programmes is the collaboration between MPA and Det Norske Veritas’ Clean Technology Centre (DNV CTC) on research and development, and test-bedding in maritime environment and clean technologies.


Through this programme, DNV CTC has embarked on joint industry projects to study the potential of liquefied natural gas in Southeast Asia, as well as a feasibility assessment on its bunkering.

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