FastCat hosts global Interferry Conference here

The Archipelago Philippine Ferries Corporation (FastCat) will be hosting this year’s international Interferry Conference to be attended by authorities in the maritime industry from all over the world.

International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Kitack Lim will be giving the keynote opening address as trade association Interferry stages its 41st annual conference in Manila this October at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza – marking a decade of cooperation between the two organizations to help improve domestic ferry safety in developing nations.

The Interferry 2016 conference on October 17-18 is the center piece of a five-day schedule from October 15 that also includes a string of networking events and concludes with a cruise and technical tour on board a FastCat vessel.

The event’s host company is FastCat, whose founder Chet Pastrana is the current Interferry president. Pastrana will be highlighting FastCat’s pioneering operations that have enhanced safety and service with the first ferry fleet to be purposely built for the Philippines – designed by Australian Interferry member Sea Transport Solutions. FastCat owns and operates the country's first and only catamaran Roll-on/ Roll-off (RoRo) ferries, and operates modernized ports and terminals in the eastern and western Philippine sea route.

Only three Interferry conferences have been held outside Europe and the Americas since the event was last held in the Philippines in 1999. This year’s venue was inspired by key statistics on membership and casualties, as explained by acting Interferry CEO, Darrell Bryan.

“The global ferry industry carries more than two billion passengers per year and close to half of these are in Southeast Asia,” says Bryan. “In contrast, only 22% of our members are from Asia, the Pacific and Africa, so we are determined to recruit in these regions – not least to extend our safety initiative in the developing world, where the vast majority of serious ferry incidents take place. Our invitation to Kitack Lim aims to boost both these objectives by allowing a lot of potential members to hear and meet him close to home.”

Safety issues will launch a typically varied agenda. Other topics range from technical innovations – including vessel design, propulsion systems, alternative fuels, automated mooring and anti-fouling coatings – to ticketing IT, urban waterways, legal insights and an insurer’s perspective on risk assessment.

A global line-up of speakers will analyze the reasons and remedies for lifethreatening incidents. More than 2,000 deaths a year result from passenger vessel – mostly ferry – accidents. Capt. Nurur Rahman, Papua New Guinea’s maritime safety operations manager, will examine why 95% of ferry fatalities occur in developing countries. Neil Baird, chairman of corporate responsibility alliance of the World Ocean Council, will present research on more than 90% of accidents and deaths which are directly attributable to human error as well as solutions on improvements for fleets.

Naval architects from Finland’s Deltamarin will explain their concept for safe and affordable ferries tailormade for Far East markets. Michael Niemann, fleet manager at Australia’s SeaLink Travel Group, will outline a best practice strategy for domestic ferries based on universal uniformity of standards. Guidance on improving the human factor in safety will be provided by Murray Goldberg, founder and CEO of world-leading specialist Marine Learning Systems.