Singapore, the world's top maritime capital, has established a Crew Facilitation Centre and a Singapore Shipping Tripartite Alliance Resilience Fund to ensure safe crew change at the busiest container transhipment hub.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said it will be taking enhanced measures to further secure safe port operations and facilitate crew change. This will allow essential goods to continue to flow through the Port of Singapore, and Singapore to play its part in the global supply chain.
MPA said it has enhanced precautionary measures for ships calling at our port to further protect crew, shore personnel and the local community.
It said ships seeking to conduct activities such as repairs, servicing, surveys and inspections which require shore personnel to board the ship must inform the Port Master at least three days prior to the arrival of the ship and undertake additional measures including disinfecting working areas in the ship.
MPA has also issued a notice to all harbour pilots on additional precautionary measures to take when conducting pilotage duties on ships.
Enhanced Crew Change Procedures
"Singapore has been facilitating crew change of all nationalities from ships of different flags, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As an international port, many foreign-flagged ships call at Singapore, and MPA has been facilitating the change of crew for these ships. Almost all Singapore-registered ships (SRS) managed to conduct crew change, including in Singapore, with the exception of 2% of the crew onboard with extended contracts," it said in a statement, adding that MPA will continue to work closely with the owners, operators and managers of SRS on these remaining crew.
MPA noted that seafarers play an important role in keeping international trade and global supply chains going, and hence, MPA will take further steps to enable crew change to take place in Singapore safely.
Crew Facilitation Centre
Effective in September, MPA, said with the support of PSA Singapore, it will use its existing floating accommodation to set up a Crew Facilitation Centre (CFC) at the Tanjong Pagar Terminal.
It will become a self-contained facility with an onsite medical centre, testing and holding facilities. It will be dedicated to the sign-on crew, and the CFC will house the crew for up to 48 hours prior to them boarding their ships if required when their ship and flight schedules do not match.
"The CFC will facilitate more crew change to take place in Singapore and keep both the ships and local community safe. Sign-off crew, based on current procedures, will proceed to depart Singapore or stay at existing designated holding facilities ... for up to 48 hours and be strictly segregated from the community," MPA noted.
Meanwhile, in line with the risk-managed approach taken by Singapore’s Multi-Ministry Taskforce, crew members who have stayed at least 14 days from specific low-risk countries/regions to sign-on to ships in Singapore will either no longer be required to serve stay-at-home isolation in the originating country/region or only serve shorter isolation of seven days prior to departure for Singapore.
However, crew members from other countries/regions will continue to serve an isolation period of 14 days prior to departure.
Singapore Shipping Tripartite Alliance Resilience (SG-STAR) Fund
As a global hub port and international maritime centre, Singapore also established an SG$1 million Singapore Shipping Tripartite Alliance Resilience (SG-STAR) Fund to work with stakeholders in seafaring nations on concrete solutions for safe crew changes, such as initiatives on best practices for crew holding facilities and PCR testing centres.
