It’s been quite a journey for C-LOG so far. C-LOG was a finalist of PIER71’s Smart Port Challenge 2019. In a recent joint announcement by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the National University of Singapore (NUS), through its entrepreneurial arm NUS Enterprise, it was awarded S$50,000 in grant funding from MPA towards prototype development and test-bedding of their solutions. We recently sat down with Kristina Lynge, CEO & Co-Founder, C-LOG for a conversation on things so far. This is the second part of the interview.
Humanity is facing a crisis like no other, with the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. It requires a comprehensive and coordinated policy response. Perhaps you could shed some light on what this may entail for the maritime industry in APAC?
Yes, it requires a comprehensive and coordinated policy response and work is already going on via the International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), multiple flag states and many more actors to create assurance around getting the seafarers designated as essential workers for the global economy and building infrastructure, including documentation, that assures safe crew changes can be performed. This requires tools to verify the medical status of each crew, physical holding capabilities in ports, land transport to airports, and a mirrored channel ‘at home’ to receive the crew and send out those that are ready to relieve the disembarking crew. Right now, the industry is struggling to get their crew off the vessels and they have hundreds of thousands of crews locked down at home now, not earning an income as they are unable to get onto the vessels. We need the IMO to change the regulation on seafarers' certificates, so we can enable faster and more accurate access to seafarers’ records to facilitate movement. Here Blockchain is a great enabler for creating trust and transparency in seafarers’ records and could potentially act as a catalyst for more flag states and authorities around the world to accept digital certificates.
With scientists predicting that the Covid-19 pandemic could still be around for at least 2 years, and no vaccine for at least another 2 years too, the new normal will be remote working, social distancing, etc. How do you think the maritime industry will cope with this new reality?
Today it is required by the industry that a manning officer manually and physically verifies the ID of the seafarer and his/her certificates before they board a vessel. The industry as a whole spends more than 12 million administrative hours doing so. This is inefficient and very time-consuming in an industry where time is of the essence. So if we look ahead and start adapting to this new normal, our solution would make it easier for the industry to remotely verify the ID and certificates of seafarers before embarking on a ship. Thereby, ensuring the safety and security that it is the right person with the right credentials embarking the vessel. But we need a broad industry adoption for this to become an accepted new normal. That’s why we are also working together with another company that has started an initiative called “The Cornerstone Initiative”. The initiative is about accelerating the digitization of legacy-records, with a first focus on the certificates of competency for seafarers.
C-LOG is pioneering data collaboration in the maritime industry by making inter-organizational sharing of crew documentation easier and faster. For more information, head to www.c-log.io
First Published on: Asia Blockchain Review
