2 minute read
MPA
Quah Ley Hoon reflects on her time in charge of the republic’s port authority
Quah Ley Hoon stepped down as chief executive of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) earlier this month, having held the position since the start of 2019. Her role has been taken by Teo Eng Dih, who was previously with the Ministry of Defence and has been a board member at Jurong
Port since 2019.
During her tenure at the MPA, Quah worked with the Singapore Maritime Foundation to establish the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) with private sector partners. For her contributions to the maritime sector, Quah was awarded the Medal of Commendation by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), and also the Legion d’Honneur by the French government for her work in keeping Singapore’s port and services open during covid, and enhancing maritime ties with France. In one of her final interviews before
stepping down, Quah assesses the state maritime Singapore is in before passing the baton on to her successor.
“Singapore has developed a comprehensive shipping centre and a vibrant marketplace, comprising international shipping groups, shipping arms of commodity traders, and maritime service providers such as marine insurers, ship financiers, shipbrokers and maritime law firms.,” Quah says. Singapore’s maritime ecosystem includes over 170 international shipping groups, and a diverse range of maritime service providers.
Looking at the areas where the citystate could up its game, Quah says MPA is keen to grow the ship finance side of maritime, particularly on the green side of the business. Singapore will also continue to build up the future fuel landscape through R&D development, trials, and deployment. In terms of digitalisation, Quah says Singapore is moving more into maritime artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
“Singapore will continue to work closely with like-minded global partners and industry players to advance our digitalisation and decarbonisation efforts to strengthen the global supply chain resilience and make international shipping more sustainable,” Quah says.
“We will continue to strengthen our value propositions to make Singapore the port of choice, a thriving international maritime centre and the voice for our maritime community,” Quah tells Splash. The MPA was established in 1996, with the mission to develop Singapore as a premier global hub port and international maritime centre (IMC). It has many roles including port authority, port regulator, port planner, IMC champion, and national maritime representative.
