SG-STAR alliance and crew change initiatives.

The following information is published for information to seafarers. It was originally posted in BD Mariners group mail. 

SG-STAR alliance and crew change initiatives.

Md. Kamal Hossain    14 September 2021 Dear Sirs,Ass’lamualikum and Good day. Singapore has set up an SG-STAR fund and Taskforce to push ahead of the effort of crew change safely and responsibly.Bangladesh could be one of the members of the Alliance.  Relevant authorities can take appropriate steps to join the alliance and facilitate Bangladeshi crew change in Singapore. The below email is quoted as a reference only. “Quote

Ref: SSA/155/21/EML

Date: 13 September 2021

Dear Member,

As a global hub port and international maritime centre, Singapore remains committed to facilitating successful crew changes in a safe and responsible manner. To propagate best practices of safe crew change, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Singapore Shipping Association (SSA), Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union (SMOU), Singapore Organisation of Seamen (SOS), and recently joined by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the International Maritime Employers’ Council (IMEC), and International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), established a Singapore Shipping Tripartite Alliance Resilience (SG-STAR) Fund to work with stakeholders in seafaring nations on practices for crew holding facilities and PCR testing centres. To date, a total of SGD $1.6 million has been committed to the Fund to support these initiatives.

The SG-STAR Fund is the first global tripartite initiative bringing together like-minded international partners from the industry, unions and government to facilitate safe crew changes. The fund, based in Singapore, will be disbursed for use upstream in countries such as Philippines and India where seafarers come from. A SG-STAR Fund Taskforce (SFTF) has been formed to push ahead with these efforts.

As part of the SFTF’s efforts, the SFTF have developed a CrewSafe audit program that endeavours to assist crew source nations to bring a higher level of confidence and quality control checks into crew change processes such as quarantine/holding, medical and swabbing facilities. The SFTF will then make known these facilities if the processes & facilities meet the requirements for proper and tight practises (taking Singapore as the reference) in the entire operational process.

The processes at the following facilities have been verified as CrewSafe:

India
1. Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport – Mumbai
2. Hyatt Regency Chennai – Chennai
3. Hotel Taj Coromandel – Chennai
4. Hotel Grand Chola – Chennai
5. Le Meridien – New Delhi
6. Sea Bird IHG Medical – Mumbai
7. Taj Connemara – Chennai

Philippines
1. AMOSUP ‘Seamen’s Hospital Molecular & PCR Laboratory – Manila
2. Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria – Manila
3. Aventus Medical Centre – Manila
4. St. Giles Makati Hotel – Makati
5. Holiday Inn Makati – Makati
6. Manila Marriott Hotel
7. Bayleaf Hotel – Manila
8. Bellevue Hotel – Manila
9. Century Park Hotel – Manila
10. Crimson Hotel – Manila
11. Red Planet Hotels Manila Bay – Manila
12. Red Planet Manila Binondo – Manila
13. Dusit Thani – Manila
14. Herald Suites Solana – Manila
15. City Garden Grand Hotel – Manila
16. Red Planet Makati – Manila
17. Red Planet ASEANA – Manila

Indonesia
1. Crowne Vista – Batam
2. Harmoni Hotel – Batam
3. Hotel 89 – Batam
4. Hotel Beverly – Batam
5. Hotel Triniti – Batam
6. The BCC Hotel & Residence – Batam
7. Vanilla Hotel – Batam

Malaysia
1. Hong Lam-Nu Hotel – Kuala Lumpur

Singapore
1. Copthorne King’s
2. Hotel Re!
3. SeaCare Hotel

This is subject to the facility maintaining the processes as audited. Failure to follow the processes will result in immediate suspension from the CrewSafe list.Companies who are interested to get their facilities CrewSafe audited, or for more information on CrewSafe, please scan the QR code below or contact Siti at [email protected] and Shuyi at [email protected]Unquote”  Thank you Kamal (33N) Singapore