Page 47 - Maritime Book 1

TRANSFORMING AND INTEGRATING OUR COMMUNITIES
Ports have also developed much closer relationships with their communities through various initiatives. These include:
• Port Festivals were once regular events attracting thousands of visitors until the advent of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code in 2004. The stringent implementation of this code meant that for more than 10 years the public had been excluded from the port. TNPA re- established festivals in 2016 by opening
the South African ports to members of the public to showcase the career and business opportunities they offer.
• Career Exhibitions to create awareness
of maritime careers and the subject requirements at high school level, in order to qualify for tertiary studies in preparation for maritime careers.
• CSI fundiing of Maths and Science tuition, classroom facilities and educational support in our adopted schools in the surrounding communities.
• Funding of tuition and boarding of four new learners annually at Lawhill Maritime Centre in Simonstown since 2006.
• Partnership with the National Department of Transport towards the annual World Maritime Day activities.
• Support of the Take a Girl Child to Work Day and Tomorrow’s Man initiatives.
All of these are geared towards creating a pipeline of mi ion
critical skills.
FACING THE CHALLENGES
As we move forward, we are continually adapting
to change. Among the challenges we are preparing for are global regulatory compliance challenges including the 0.5% sulphur cap on emissions which will be introduced into law by the International Maritime Organisation in 2020 .
In recent years we have begun to experience
the impact of climate change with major storms disrupting port operations. Rather than resisting the changing climate, TNPA is focusing on developing resilience to minimise the extent and duration of lost cargo throughput resulting from climate-induced disruptions in our ports. The goal is to bring the port’s freight movement system back to its prior operating level before costly and protracted delays occur.
A National Climate Cluster has been established in addition to Climate Clusters at each port for the sharing of lessons learned from disruptive weather events, helping ports prepare for such eventualities by reviewing their emergency preparations and recovery plans.
As TNPA, we face competition for international business from ports in neighbouring countries
– Namibia and Mozambique. We need to re-engineer business processes and design thinking to focus on economic growth using unconventional methods in order to diversify our revenue streams.
The future will see us continue to operate as a vehicle of the state, facilitating trade and unlocking economic growth – through reducing the cost of doing business and delivering a globally competitive transport and logistics system.
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