A new body of world ship owners has been born, with Nigeria’s Orji Uzor Kalu as interim president. Known as World Shipowners’ Association (WSA), the organisation is designed as an umbrella body for all national, regional and international associations of ship owners, the interim Director of Strategy and Communications, Isaac Marshall, said in a statement issued yesterday. He explained that Orji Kalu, President of Slok Group and former governor of Abia State in South-East Nigeria, is to steer the association with other interim officials until the election of substantive officials at the proposed Marine Conference scheduled for Greece in the third quarter of 2017.

Mr. Marshall disclosed that WSA was established sequel to the adoption of the agreement of the International Maritime Round Table (IMRT) held in Washington DC, USA, last week Monday, October 2, 2015. He recalled that the forum attracted mainly owners of container ships, bulk carriers, tankers, fishing vessels, barges, specialised ships and ferries from 29 countries, including the United States of America, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Russia, Nigeria, Denmark, Norway and others.

Said Mr. Marshall: “Today, we are excited to announce the birth of the much-awaited international co-operation among players in the maritime industry. WSA is now a reality with a resolve to sustain the interests of ship owners in order to serve the global economy in an atmosphere of healthy business competition to the advantage of consumers and stakeholders.

“The new body was conceptualised and established by mainly owners of Offshore Supply Vessels and big players in the marine business as a partner to maritime bodies including the International Maritime Organisation in order to build a sustainable marine platform for the advancement of the global economy.

“WSA is committed to strategic collaboration with partners across the globe in order to meet the expectations of industry stakeholders by actively engaging existing and potential individual and corporate members, trade bodies and regulators.

“At the maritime round table, an interim team headed by Nigeria-born Forbes billionaire and President of Slok Group, Orji Kalu, was unanimously appointed.”

Marshall said the team would be coordinating the activities of the global shipping body from Abuja, Nigeria. The team‘s mandate is to effectively drive membership and engagement of existing maritime associations across the world towards the inauguration of national and regional secretariats across the globe and advocacy visits to the United Nations agencies, African Export-Import Bank, Export-Import Bank of the United States, among others. The interim team is also expected to set up steering committees for various purposes in order to run an all-inclusive and sustainable business platform.

“Membership of the association will attract limitless benefits including business networking, pressure group for the advancement of shipping cause, common mentality, market intelligence, access to industry publications globally, access to policy and decision makers, human capital development, group negotiations on transactions, among others.”

•Photo shows Orji Uzor Kalu.