MANILA, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos on Monday vowed to strengthen the country's maritime industry and to protect over 500,000 Filipino seafarers around the globe.
Marcos also ordered government agencies and other stakeholders to work together to boost the industry by adopting new technologies to secure emerging opportunities for seafarers.
Marcos said in a seafarers summit that the Philippines must live up to its reputation as the Seafaring Capital of the World, with over half a million Filipinos "braving the vastness of the seas, comprising a quarter of the global maritime workplace."
Marcos said the private sector and the government must unite in transforming the transportation industry, including shipping, marked by the coming of new and sustainable fuels and the deployment of digitalization and automation.
Marcos calls for up-skilling and reskilling of Filipino seafarers to prepare them for the shift of ocean-going vessels from using conventional fuel sources to green ammonia between 2030 and 2040.
According to Philippine central bank data, Filipino seafarers send an estimated 6.54 billion U.S. dollars in remittances annually, or 22 percent of the total dollar remittances by overseas Filipino workers. ■
