Passenger Port of St. Petersburg delegation visited Port of Singapore
Between July 23 and July 27, 2018, the Republic of Singapore saw the implementation of the Protocol on Cooperation between the Government of St. Petersburg and the Singapore Cooperation Agency, which was signed in November 2017, and the Roadmap for the Cooperation agreed at SPIEF 2018. According to the port's press center, St. Petersburg delegation chaired by Vice Governor Igor Albin included the leadership of “Passenger Port of St. Petersburg “Marine Façade” PLC. The official visit was arranged by the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg in cooperation with the Committee for Transport. The delegation also included representatives from Northern Capital Gateway LLC, SPb GUE Passazharavtotrans, SPb GPI Agency of External Transport, and Telros, CJSC.
On July 25, 2018, the participants of St. Petersburg delegation examined Singapore port facilities involved in the reception of cruise and ferry vessels such as Singapore Cruise Center and Marina Bay Cruise Center. The leadership of “Passenger Port of St. Petersburg “Marine Façade” PLC, the representatives of SPb GPI Agency of External Transport and Telros, CJSC took part in the meeting from the Russian side. The Port of Singapore is currently one of the world's leading ports. Its cargo turnover was 627.7 million tons in 2017, while the containers turnover exceeded 33.6 million TEUs in the past year. At the same time, Singapore is one of the major Asia-Pacific cruise ports and it annually serves more than a million passengers arriving in the city on board cruise and ferry boats.
Singapore Cruise Center is the largest facility complex that includes three ferry terminals and one cruise terminal serving approximately 7 million passengers annually and most of them are passengers of small boats with a capacity of up to 300 people coming from neighboring ports of Malaysia and Indonesia. In addition, the terminal annually serves approximately 950 thousand cruise tourists.
Marina Bay Cruise Center is one of the largest and most up-to-date terminals in the world and the cruises' origin and destination port. The terminal is equipped for receiving ships of up to 360 meters long and 220,000 gt. Today, the port is capable of handling 1,200 baggage pieces per hour and more than 6,500 passengers per day. The port has received more than a million passengers for five years, with 250,000 passengers welcomed in 2017. Marina Bay Cruise Center is operated by SATS-Creuers Cruise Services, a joint venture of SATS Ltd and Creurs Cruise Services, which is part of the Global Ports Holding. Another major port of the Creurs Holding is the Port of Barcelona, which has currently increased passenger traffic up to 2,500,000 passengers vs. 560,000 in 2000.
During the visit, the representatives of the delegation were taken around the terminal infrastructure and then held negotiations to discuss some topical issues of port infrastructure and the best practices in the field of passenger operations.
The Port of Singapore is actively introducing new technologies in all areas of operation in order to automate the procedures, which increases the port’s efficiency and facilitates the management of the main business processes.
The accumulated experience of Singapore cruise terminals will be beneficial for St. Petersburg experts to further develop the Passenger Port of St. Petersburg, including as a port of cruises' origin and destination.
It is also worth noting that 2018 marks the 50th anniversary since the establishment of the diplomatic relationships between Singapore and Russia.
