The standing Committee on Social Affairs heard last week that increasing the number of qualified harbour pilots is one of the major challenges faced by Fiji Ports Corporation Limited (FPCL).

While making submissions on the company’s 2010-2014 Annual Report, FPCL Chief Executive Officer Vajira Piyasena replied to questions from the Committee, chaired by the Government MP Viam Pillay, said FPCL have around five harbour pilots based in major ports around the country.

Harbour pilot’s assist in the movement of ships in and out of the harbour and shifting the vessels. During this process, the ship’s captain never relinquishes control instead it relies on the harbour pilot to navigate.

Mr Piyasena said that FPCL is more concerned about this issue as this will directly impact port operations. He said, therefore it is a critical area where they had put more emphasis.

“We are planning to recruit more suitably qualified people and we will train them till they become licenced harbour pilots,’’ Mr Piyasena said.

He said they were focused on training them because for the previous years they had experienced more ships and need the services of pilots.

However Mr Piyasena said it would take a considerably long time as this is a complex process to train a harbour pilot which FPCL was planning to invest in.

In the social and employment area Mr Piyasena said FPCL had recruited women into company’s engineering team, which was a significant step to address gender balance and to provide equal opportunities for women in engineering.

The committee Chairman Mr Pillay said FPCL had answered all the questions raised by the committee based on the reports submitted.

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