The Sultanate of Oman, as a maritime nation, plays an important role in assuring the stability of global logistics, Dr Ibrahim al Nadhairi, CEO of Asyad Shipping and Drydock Services, said on the sidelines of The Maritime Standard Tanker Conference 2022 held recently in Dubai. Al Nadhairi was one of the lead speakers at conference, where optimism about the future of the maritime industry was the key theme.
“Oman is historically a maritime nation and it is time for us to revive that history and make sure to highlight the potentials of Oman in the maritime industry,” Al Nadhairi said.
Asyad, the logistics arm of the government of Oman, plays a major role in promoting Oman through its interests spanning shipping, port operation and management, dry ports, postal express and logistics as well as in the transportation industry.
“Part of the national mandate to enforce this requirement is basically to make sure that the local industry is equipped with the right tools and expertise to provide the private sector. And with that we are working with a local SME to establish a crewing industry in Oman where our local (Omani) crew will come from this manning agency,” he said.
“What we do in Asyad is basically to provide them with the expertise and give the support they needed to produce the best quality of Oman crew,” he added.
Before the pandemic, there were less than 200 Omani seafarers working as officers on board Asyad ships, with about 150 Omani cadets currently being trained to become ship officers. “For now, we can accommodate only a small number of Omani crew. There are so many graduates from the International Maritime College Oman, which we cannot accommodate. So what we will do is to train these graduates onboard our ships, give them the right training and expertise and hopefully these manning agencies can put them onboard international ships,” he added.
