UGNAYAN – A message from Tore Henriksen

Dear PNBC Members,

It is a privilege for me to be asked to contribute to the Ugnayan series of PNBC which aims at informing the members of the various activities undertaken by the organization despite the current unusual times.

As PNBC’s treasurer I should probably start by saying a few words on the organisation’s financial status. Given the nature of PNBC as a non-profit organization where the only substantial expenses are connected to events for the members the pandemic have had little adverse effect on our finances. We are however acutely aware that for most of our members the pandemic has had substantial negative effect, and the combination of these two facts led to the Board of Trustees’ decision, as conveyed by Carl earlier this month, to forego one year of fees by making all memberships renewed or started during 2021 valid until end-2022. During challenging times every contribution counts.

I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the most active sub-committee of PNBC, namely the Joint Maritime Committee(JMC) of the Dutch-, German-, Nordic- and Norwegian chambers in the Philippines. The JMC was formed last year with the German Chamber’s existing Maritime committee as the nucleus in the realization that a consolidation of the maritime stakeholders of the involved chambers would be beneficial on several levels. Firstly the maritime industry is truly global, and as such our challenges are international rather than depending on nation of origin. Secondly there is strength in numbers, and with the involved chambers representing three of the ten largest shipowning nations in the world, including Norway, we believe we could develop into a recognized stakeholder in the eyes of the local authorities.

The JMC meets virtually at 3PM on the last Thursday of every month, and we invite speakers to cover a mixture of local and global focal areas. This coming Thursday the topic is new technology with speakers from Kongsberg, Maersk and the Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners; you can see the full program and register here: https://pnbc.ph/articles/joint-maritime-committee-meeting/ . In May we have invited Admiral Empedrad, Head of Marina, while the June session will focus on Maritime security. As members of PNBC you are all welcome to join the meetings of the JMC, and while we are currently limited to virtual meetings we will in the future be able to offer convivial socializing to add to the professional output.

The times dictates that I end this by some words on the pandemic, so here are 17: The only thing we know for certain about the pandemic is that it will not last forever!

Stay safe!

Best regards,
Tore Henriksen