Maritime Week Gibraltar will showcase Rock’s offering in crucial sector

A weeklong programme of seminars and workshops under the theme Maritime Week Gibraltar will be held in November to showcase the Rock’s offering in this crucial sector of the economy.

The event, scheduled for November 8-12 this year, was announced by the Minister for the Port, Vijay Daryanani, at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

Also at the announcement was the owner and managing director of event organiser Petrospot, Llewellyn Bankes-Hughes; Captain of the Port Manuel Tirado; Deputy Captain John Ghio; Registrar of Yachts Diana Soussi Avellano; and Maritime Administrator (Acting) Dylan Cocklan, from the Gibraltar Maritime Administration.

“Maritime week will showcase Gibraltar’s role as a key global maritime centre and at the same time we will seek to promote our port and our maritime services as we move from the pandemic and we look for more business out there,” said Mr Daryanani.

The week will consist of a range of events such as an all-day bunker training course, seminars and meetings, maritime services exhibition, site visits, lunches and evening receptions and a bunkering round table which will be by invitation only.

“The event is organised by us but it has the full backing of the Government of Gibraltar, the Gibraltar Port Authority, the Gibraltar Maritime Administration and the University of Gibraltar Maritime Academy,” said Mr Bankes-Hughes.

“It is very important to have these entities onboard. We have run conferences in many places just as a private event but we find if you have Government involved and administrations involved the whole industry gets involved too and it is a much better system.”

This is the second time Petrospot, which organises maritime events around the globe, is organising a conference on the Rock, having been here in 2016 for a bunkering event.

“The whole idea of Maritime Week Gibraltar is to show people what is on offer,” said Mr Bankes-Hughes.

“A lot of people know Gibraltar for the bunkering, that is how I got to know it in the first place after many years of bunkering.”

‘But there is a lot more to offer here and if people do not know about it they are not going to use it.”

“They are not going to use the dry docks, they are not going to use the retro fitting facilities or the salvage or the things that are here.”

“So the idea is to open up and show people what you do.”

Mr Daryanani stated the timing of the Maritime Week was important as Gibraltar sought new business opportunities emerging from the pandemic.

“I am very keen in promoting the port, I think it has huge potential out there,” Mr Daryanani said.

“We have proved over the last 12-18 months during the pandemic the port has functioned without any issues whatsoever.”

“When I give my budget speech this week it will show how well the port has actually done in so far as revenue is concerned in the middle of a pandemic.”

“I think we need to continue promoting Gibraltar and this is the opportunity for that.”

“Coming out of a pandemic we will have key players of the maritime section visiting Gibraltar and there will be people who have done business but have never visited Gibraltar.”

“It will be a fantastic opportunity for people to come to Gibraltar and we can show them what we have and we can show them our port.”