The 13th Meeting of the APSN Council took place virtually on November 18, 2021. Council Members from Canada; China; Hong Kong, China; Japan; Malaysia; Papua New Guinea; Peru; the Philippines; Singapore; Thailand, the United States and Viet Nam were in attendance. Mr. Bui Van Quy, Chair of the Advisory Board, also attended the meeting.

Mr. Marc-Yves Bertin, President of the APSN Council, opened the meeting and welcomed all participants to the Council Meeting. On behalf of China, the host economy of the APSN events 2021, Mr. Shan Hongjun, Deputy Director-General of Department of International Cooperation of Ministry of Transport of China, extended a warm welcome to all Council Members and reiterated China’s willingness to continue working closely with all Council members to raise the profile of APSN as a key international organization in the APEC region.

At the meeting, the Council re-elected Mr. Tan Cheng Peng, Executive Director of Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI), as the First Vice President of the Council for another term. The Council also elected Capt. Mohamad Halim Ahmed, Undersecretary of Ministry of Transport of Malaysia, as the Second Vice President of the APSN Council for a two year term. Both Mr. Tan and Capt. Halim thanked the Council for its trust and expressed commitment to serve the Council in the coming years.

The Council considered and adopted the 2021 Work Report by the Secretary-General. The Council noted that the Secretariat engaged with all APSN member economies to work towards a vigilant response to the pressures of COVID-19 on the supply chain throughout 2021. Continued efforts have been made regarding capacity-building in the port and related industry to provide opportunities for stakeholders in the APEC community to exchange views. The APEC Smart Port Development Forum was held virtually on 16 November 2021 and around 380 attendees from 15 economies were in attendance. The Forum successfully provided a platform for different stakeholders to exchange ideas and share views regarding trends and developments of smart port to help port and terminal operators cope with future challenges. The Council highly commended the progress made by the APSN Secretariat over the past year in furthering the APSN objectives.

At the meeting, the Council also considered and adopted the APSN Action Plan for 2022, the APSN Budget for 2022 as well as the Progress Report on the APEC Port Study Center and the APSN Green Port Award System (GPAS). 

Looking forward, the Council decided that the APSN events 2022 and 2023 will be held in the Philippines and Thailand, respectively. The theme of the APSN Forum in 2022 will be “inclusive pandemic recovery of the APEC port industry”. The Council expressed its gratitude to the President and the Secretariat for their hard work in ensuring another successful Council Meeting.

Source: APSN