The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) will inject another SGD65m ($47m) to a fund an existing programme aimed at attracting and grooming local talent for the maritime sector, bringing the funds invested under this programme since 2007 to SGD115m.

The additional funding to the Maritime Cluster Fund (MCF)- Manpower Development (MD) programme will be used to introduce new initiatives as well as to step up existing efforts, MPA announced.

“MPA is committed to building a strong core of local talent in the maritime industry, which offers diverse career opportunities for Singaporeans in both seafaring and shore-based jobs,” said Andrew Tan, chief executive of MPA.

“The enhancement to the MCF-MD programme not only lends strong support to the national-level SkillsFuture initiative but also allows us to support more skills-based learning, upgrading, and re-skilling for those who want to switch careers. We will be announcing more initiatives on manpower development by the two taskforces in the coming months,” Tan said.