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Inaugural Sea Asia Event set for launch in Singapore – April 2007
December 2006

Sea Asia, the first international maritime event to showcase the talent, resource and expertise available across the maritime industries in Asia, is nearly here.

After almost two years of planning and promotion, the organizers of Sea Asia are on the last lap of preparation to ensure the inaugural show is going to be an enormous success.

The exhibition and conference takes place at Suntec Singapore 2-4 April 2007, and will provide a unique platform for the pan-Asian shipping and maritime communities to come together and be heard with one coherent, powerful voice.

Sea Asia represents a real first in terms of what it will provide: a regional summit for the international leaders of the maritime industries from Asia to give voice to their aspirations and hopes for the future.

That is why, since May 2005, Sea Asia’s co-organizers Seatrade of the UK and the Singapore Maritime Foundation (SMF) have been generating local and worldwide interest in the event and attracting a top level menu of international participants, conference speakers and attendees.

The Sea Asia event has the full endorsement of the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore and a host of other leading maritime companies and institutions.

The UK-based professional event organisers Seatrade, and their regional partner on Sea Asia, the SMF have already announced the first wave of a senior line-up of industry participants for the event.

Seatrade and the SMF recently confirmed that the opening conference session for Sea Asia, on Monday 2 April, will be ‘The Asian Voice in World Shipping’. Some of the most prominent shipowners from the region will address the central issue of how Asian owners can best combine to create a powerful united voice in addition to looking at key global industry issues from an Asian perspective.

The confirmed keynote speaker is ALBERTO ALEMAN ZUBIETA, Administrator of the Panama Canal Authority.

Some of the most senior names in Asian shipping today who are now confirmed speakers at Sea Asia include : DOUGLAS HSU, Chairman, U-Ming Marine Transport Corporation and Group Chairman, Far Eastern Group Taiwan; JONG-CHUL LEE, President & CEO, STX PanOcean,  South Korea ; ANDREAS SOHMEN PAO, Managing Director, BW Shipping, Hong Kong and  FREDERICK TSAO, Chairman, IMC Shipping Co Pte Ltd, Singapore.

Among those international companies which have already committed to Sea Asia by taking stands at the exhibition are STX Pan Ocean, DNV, Kelvin Hughes, Keppel Fels and Keppel Shipyard, BH Global, PSA Corporation .Others include  ABB , Headway Marine,  Incheon Port, Jurong Port , Cosco , STX Shipbuilding  and ASL Shipyard.

And to underline how popular Sea Asia is proving, a host of leading international maritime related companies and institutions have agreed to sponsor Sea Asia.

These include Jefferies, the US ship finance house, as Gold Sponsor, Castrol Marine, The Singapore Tourist Board, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and leading international law firm Holman Fenwick & Willan plus Lloyd’s Register, Wartsila, Germanischer Lloyd, Shipcentric, DVB Bank and the Standard Asia P&I Club

Other top name international speakers now confirmed include SPYROS POLEMIS, Chairman, International Chamber of Shipping and President, International Shipping Federation DAGFINN LUNDE, Chairman and CEO, DVB Bank NV and Member of Board of Managing Directors, DVB Bank AG EAR CHOW FOO, Deputy Director, Energy Market Authority, Singapore ABDULLAH AL SULAITI, Ship Acquisition Manager, Qatargas Operating Co.

YOUNG-MYUNG YANG, Head, LNG Tank Technology Center, R&D Division, KOGAS MARK WATKINS, Chief Executive Officer, Mark Watkins Marine Syndicate at Lloyd’s.

Sessions across the three days include a charterers’ forum, a ship finance one-day summit, focused sessions on procurement and marine insurance, and a dedicated LNG Shipping summit, in association with the Society of International Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO). Major companies such as KOGAS of South Korea and Qatar Gas will be speaking at the LNG Shipping Summit.

Other sessions that are scheduled for the conference at ones on the booming offshore oil and gas sector and its prospects in the Asia region and a session on the growing cruise shipping market.

Sea Asia will also be a commercial platform for all those with buying and selling interests in Asia’s booming industrial and technological maritime marketplace.

That is why exhibitors at Sea Asia have already taken up more than 85% of the floorspace at Suntec for the inaugural event.

Seatrade’s Managing Director, Christopher Hayman, said: “Seatrade and our partners SMF in Singapore have worked wonderfully well as a team to ensure that the inaugural Sea Asia is a successful event. Although we are still four months away from the show, there is every indication that Sea Asia will establish itself as a leading international maritime event which will quickly establish itself as a ‘must attend’ for the global maritime community.”

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