With over 600 esteemed guests, this year’s Lunar New Year Cocktail was a lively one. Taking place on 15th February at Stamford Ballroom at Raffles City Convention Centre, the event allowed SSA members, guests, and members of the maritime community to gather to celebrate the start of the Year of the Dragon with a toss to prosperity.
In attendance included Guest-of-Honour Minister Chee Hong Tat, Minster for Transport and Second Minister for Finance, guests from Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore as well as ambassadors from Italy, Finland, Greece, and Norway.
As part of the celebrations, guests were greeted by a pair of energetic lions. They were also encouraged to take part in lo-hei, or a toss for prosperity.
As the first event of the year of 2024, Minister shared that Ministry of Transport (MOT) and the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) will continue to work closely with the industry and unions to secure Singapore’s long-term competitiveness, such as investing in growing areas such as digitalisation and decarbonisation, and addressing Singaporean companies’ concerns on rising business costs and manpower constraints. Minster invited the industry to continue sharing their concerns and pain-points, so that the maritime community can collectively make things better for Maritime SG.
In her speech, SSA President Ms Caroline Yang also mentioned that the industry’s strong performance is made possible by talent, and that it is imperative that the maritime industry continues to achieve this by attracting talent from outside the sector. In this regard, SSA has been appointed a Programme Partner of Workforce Singapore’s (WSG) Career Conversion Programme (CCP) for the Sea Transport sector. Under the programme, SSA member companies will be able to apply for salary support for Singapore Citizens or Singapore Permanent Residents when they hire new talents from outside the maritime industry, or re-deploy current staff to a redesigned or enlarged job role.
For pictures of the event, click here.
For more information on the Career Conversion Programme, please write to member-services@ssa.org.sg
The SSA Lunar New Year cocktail was a joyous evening, and the event was only made possible thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, partners and everyone who contributed.
A special thank you to our sponsors:
Equatorial Marine Fuel Management Services Pte Ltd
PSA Singapore
Direct Search Global
Hong Lam Marine Pte Ltd
OSM Thome
V. Ships Asia Group Pte Ltd