Friday, December 5, 2008

Maritime Officials Sailed to Subic for International Conference

Different representatives of Asian ports met from October 28 – 29, 2008 at the newly built Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center in Subic Bay Freeport Zone for its 10th International Network of Affiliated Ports (INAP) Conference.

With the theme “Emerging Roles in Asian Ports”, the INAP Conference aims to exchange and share information on marine transport and port affairs, study and discuss potential measures to promote mutual exchanges, and create a world scale port network which could respond the needs of marine transport on the basis of intra-regional networks consisting of member ports.

More than 200 guests from the different INAP Members attended the conference. During the first day of the event, INAP Chairmanship was formally turned over from the Port of Kochi, Japan to the Port of Subic Bay, Philippines and approved the designation of Mokpo Newport, Korea as the INAP Host for 2009. Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman Feliciano Salonga served as the Chairman for the 10th Conference. On the second day, plenary and panel sessions were held at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center. In the afternoon, most of the delegates were brought to Clark Freeport Zone for a technical briefing and tour of the facility.

INAP is composed of seven ports found in the Asia Pacific Region. These are Cebu and Subic Bay Port for the Philippines; Port of Colombo for Sri Lanka; Port of Kochi, located in Shikoku Island, Japan; Qingdao Port in China; Tanjung Perak in Java, Indonesia; and Mokpo Newport located in Korea.

INAP came from the vision of Hon. M. H. M. Ashraff, PC, MP, former Minister of Ports Development, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Sri Lanka. In 1998, he was inspired when the Port of Kochi opened and stated that affiliate ports in the region should come together. With this, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority held the 1st INAP Conference at Colombo on November 17-19, 1998. This was attended by 6 ports, including the Philippines. Since then, INAP members have met yearly to seek innovations discovered by co-members and address issues that affect the maritime industry.

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