Fiji Shipping: Attention to Retention?

 


Can Fiji turn Attention to Retention?

Andrew Irvin, Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport, andrew.irvin@usp.ac.fj

As Fiji focuses on the future of its shipping sector, reflection on its past is a crucial undertaking. While in recent years, Fiji has revived its sailing heritage and enjoys an active sailing and paddling community alongside the continued presence of small-scale shipbuilding and larger dry-docking/repair operations, the capacity to independently meet the needs of domestic shipping operations has fallen by the wayside. Understanding what is required to accommodate the existing needs across the industry reveals that the public enterprise reform[1] undertaken thirty years ago offers only a partial blueprint for restoration of this capacity. It was not only a stripping of material assets that took place. Fiji has now endured three decades of human resource capacity loss as citizens seek education and employment opportunities abroad.

In 1994, a few years after the public enterprise reform began, the late Epeli Hau’ofa wrote Our Sea of Islands[2], which served as a critical examination of the capacity of Pacific Island cultures to craft their identities going forward, drawing on the knowledge and strength of the past. It is integral that Fiji and its island neighbours contend with the scope of systems built by those who do not live amidst the world’s largest ocean – those who continually marginalize the voices of island nations, dismissive of an intrinsic inability to muster “economies of scale.” 

So how does Fiji train and retain a new generation of seafarers? The recent labour debacle involving accusations of mistreatment of Filipino seafarers by Goundar Shipping[3] demonstrates the disparity in necessary skilled labour and the employment conditions under which they’re expected to operate. Fiji’s shipping industry needs to provide a compelling case for Fijians to participate.

This goes beyond competitive wages. If Fiji is to build the capacity of citizens to provide the naval architecture, marine engineering, construction, and seafaring skills needed to meet domestic shipping requirements, valorisation of these trades alone will not suffice. Regulation and policy must go well beyond what is needed to create a “level playing field”, since those citizens building these skills must be incentivized to return from obtaining their educations elsewhere and invest their efforts into domestic industry – this also includes investing in the training institutions needed to ensure future generations of shipping professionals need not leave the country to obtain educations in their trades. The next generation of Fijian shipping hinges on the actions taken by our generation to chart a safe course forward.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Harnessing Nature's Power: Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion and Deep-Sea Water By-products

Image
Introduction In a world where renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly important, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) stands out as a promising and largely untapped resource. This innovative technology leverages the temperature difference between warm surface water and cold deep-sea water to generate electricity. Additionally, OTEC offers a unique advantage - the utilization of deep-sea water by-products. In this blog, we will delve into the process of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion and explore the various potential applications of deep-sea water. In my previous blog post I explained a bit about the science behind the OTEC process, if you have not read it you can find it here . However, generally the process can be broken down into four main components. Seawater Selection: The first step in OTEC involves carefully selecting suitable locations where there is a significant temperature gradient between surface water and deep-sea water. These areas are typically found i
Read more

Go Sail Cargo – The new Corporate Entity and its potential

Image
In order to steer Go Sail Cargo towards sustainable zero-carbon growth and global expansion, a new business entity must be created. Capital raising is first on the list and here we must be clear in our goals and informed as to how to achieve them, but thinking laterally and being prepared to abandon preconceived ideas, unless they dovetail with the aims of the new company, is essential. In order to be taken seriously any new entity must present a practical, viable, scalable and profitable proposition that is demonstrably beneficial to all stakeholders. One that fulfills a clearly identified need and does so in a non-invasive and non-polluting manner for the foreseeable future. Go Sail Cargo ticks all those boxes. It is my aim to develop a structure that is essentially cooperative in ownership and concordant in action. Specifically, the Pacific Nations, with their overwhelming dependence on maritime transport and centuries of advanced and intuitive navigational skills s
Read more