Event Info About half a dozen cities have chosen “international maritime centre” (IMC) as one of the development goals. Yet each city often gives a different description of what an international maritime centre is. As almost all aspects of “visible” shipping (from seaborne trade, seafaring, to shipbuilding, ship-owning, ship-operation and ship-scrapping) are today by and large provided by Asian countries, it is just natural that many of those cities are from Asia. While looking for a unique or a universally accepted definition is unnecessary and therefore not our purpose, having a clearer idea and a discussion about the key elements that make an IMC is meaningful. According to a recent research, IMCs can be divided into three types or categories, namely: maritime production-based, maritime service-based and maritime knowledge-based. By production, we mean the demand and supply for the maritime transport, or basically, cargo and ships; By service, we mean the transport of cargo by ships and the related services; By knowledge, we mean three things: data/information (collecting/processing/analysing), decision making (headquarters, organizations, etc.), and innovation (new concepts, standards, methods, etc.). What are the main characteristics of the different IMCs? What are the relations between them? Where are the relative positions of the various leading maritime cities vis-ŕ-vis the three types of IMCs? And what are the key factors for such cities to become one of such IMCs? In this public lecture, attempts are made to address such questions and to, hopefully, clarify some of the doubts on this topic. Registration for this event has closed. |