To be a leading International Maritime Centre, our goal is to develop a comprehensive range of maritime ancillary services to provide one-stop service for all port, shipping and maritime activities. We are constantly looking to develop high value-add and knowledge-based services in areas such as ship management, ship financing, marine insurance, ship broking, maritime legal services, and maritime and offshore engineering.

We have launched incentive schemes such as the Approved International Shipping Enterprise (AIS) scheme to attract shipping companies to reside in Singapore. There are currently more than 100 international shipping companies here, forming an important anchor for our International Maritime Centre.

Maritime manpower development is essential to ensure a steady pipeline of talent to fuel maritime industry growth. To this end, we have worked in partnership with the private sector to raise awareness of the industry, and to develop a whole range of education and training opportunities, as well as scholarships and attachment programmes. A dedicated career portal - Singapore Maritime Careers - was launched while grants for maritime training programmes are also made available.

We also place great emphasis in R&D in helping us to expand knowledge and capability in the maritime sector. A $100 million Maritime Innovation and Technology (MINT) Fund was established to co-fund the development of maritime R&D initiatives. Local as well as overseas Maritime R&D MOUs have also been signed with various research institutions for collaborative projects.