Some good news as fuel supply for the people of Taveuni is expected to normalise from this week after four trucks of fuel leave on an Interlink Shipping Services vessel this evening.
Interlink Managing Director, Ashish Kumar says after raising concerns on fijivillage last week regarding the serious lack of senior seafarers that was affecting shipping services due to safety, the company extends its sincere appreciation to Minister for Transport, Ro Filipe Tuisawau, and the Ministry of Transport for their prompt intervention and decisive action in resolving longstanding challenges.
We have received confirmation that the company can get experienced senior seafarers from Indonesia.
Kumar says this will be a mentorship programme where class 1 and 2 holders will be recruited from abroad to fulfill the shortage and also upskill our seafarers.
This programme will be run by the company and the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji will be part of this.
The company says the Minister's intervention marks an important milestone for Fiji's shipping industry and provides a stronger foundation for the continued development of our maritime workforce.
With the lack of experienced seafarers, the company could not fully service the northern routes which had started to affect supplies to places like Taveuni.
The company did not want to compromise safety as there were a lot of risks of having a shipping disaster based on having inexperienced seafarers.
Two vessels had run aground in a matter of weeks, and this had become a real concern.
Ro Filipe Tuisawau is yet to respond to our questions.
