Shipping Minister G K Vasan today said in the wake of increasing demand for sea farers in global maritime trade, India should develop human resource in the maritime sector as it has huge potential.
"The need of the hour is to develop human resources in India in maritime sector as demand for sea farers in global maritime trade is estimated to grow by 20 per cent by 2015,"he said inaugurating the India Maritime Human Resources Summit here.
"This is a great opportunity for India and we can aspire to meet a large share of this requirement if we prepare ourselves for it," Vasan said.
He said the government's objective is to increase India's market share to at least 10 per cent of the global market within the next five years.
Stating that sea faring is a very attractive profession and shipping industry provides tremendous job opportunities to the country's youth, he said, "It is estimated India can supply 65,000 additional officers in the next five years.
He said recent studies indicated that the next few years would see substantial growth in global maritime trade that would result in corresponding increase in fleet.
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Observing that sea faring sector is an all male profession, he said women could be encouraged to take up the profession by making special efforts such as better accommodation and creating a gender friendly atmosphere in ships.
"Today women are excelling in all sectors and there is no reason why maritime sector should be the exclusive preserve of males," he said.
The Shipping Ministry had taken many initiatives to promote maritime sector in the country, he said, adding Indian tonnage had crossed ten million gross tonnage (GT) for the first time in August, 2010.
"Shipping Corporation of India, which is the flagship PSU under our Ministry, has ordered 26 new ships and is planning to acquire another 40 during the next five years," he said.
Stating that 22 new public private partnership (PPP) projects were awarded in the last one-and-half year to modernise and increase the capacity of the ports, at an investment of Rs 6,172 crore, he said his ministry was formulating new policies to promote coastal shipping and ship building in the country.