Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), the Antwerp Port Authority and the Antwerp/Flanders Port Training Centre (APEC) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that would bring Belgian expertise into South Africa’s maritime training efforts.

In terms of the MoU, the organisations would jointly develop and implement a maritime training plan in South Africa over a five-year period from October this year to September 2018.

“We recognise that safety, security, efficiency and regularity of sea navigation and harmonious progress of international maritime activities rely on the continuous training of maritime personnel. We also recognise the importance of assistance and cooperation in the field of specialised maritime training.

“It is in this context that we are concluding this MoU that determines the basis on which we will cooperate with one another to our mutual benefit for the purposes of providing training in maritime and related disciplines,” TNPA CEO Tau Morwe said.

Antwerp Port Authority CEO Eddy Bruyninckx stated that the port sector was complex, with influences from international and local dimensions.

“Catering for these changes to a maximum degree is, therefore, the challenge ports constantly and consistently have to face. Sound training in the various aspects of port management and development, and specialised training in port and logistics-oriented subareas, are the building blocks for the successful development of a national port sector on the one hand and individual ports on the other hand,” he said.

The training plan that would be developed in terms of the MoU would include land- and sea-related maritime disciplines; assistance in mobilising resources for training through trilateral arrangements with willing partners, and ensuring that the training provided augmented South Africa’s institutional capability to build a maritime skills base that promoted safety, security and the development of maritime activities.

Decisions on the areas of training, suitable training centres and the number of candidates that would be able to qualify for training, would be undertaken jointly and would take existing South African maritime capacity-building initiatives into account.

The candidates to be trained would be registered by APEC in the selected training centres on behalf of TNPA once proper governance processes had been followed.