The Singapore National Shippers' Council (SNSC) highlighted the role it could play in fostering closer collaboration on critical issues like maritime industry regulatory reform at its 35th annual general meeting last Friday.
These collaborative efforts will become especially important later this year in the light of impending major changes in the regulatory environment for the shipping industry, SNSC said.
'In the critical area of maritime regulatory reform, the much-anticipated ban on conferences will kick in in the European Union in October. In Asia, China and India will be introducing the Competition Act this year with no special provisions made for shipping,' said SNSC chairman John Lu.
'As more countries adopt the same policy, market-based principles for liner shipping will become the norm, not the exception' he added.
Mr Lu went on to note that while the world economy continued to expand last year, growth was uneven with fast growth in Asia but with the US economy coming under pressure from the sub-prime market problems there.
He also highlighted the fact that SNSC had raised its reputation within the international shippers' community after it successfully hosted one of the world's biggest shippers' gatherings here last September. Over 70 delegates from 19 shippers' councils in 54 countries attended the fourth annual meeting of the Asian Shippers' Council and the 14th annual meeting of the Global Shippers' Forum.
Mr Lu, who recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Asian Freight and Supply Chain Awards, was also re-elected as SNSC chairman at the management committee meeting following the AGM.