REPORT
Introduction
The membership of the Port Welfare Committee is drawn from representatives of shipping community and Government departments which are concerned with the welfare of visiting seafarers on board ships calling at Hong Kong.
Activities
2.
The purpose of the Committee is to ensure that proper arrangements are made to safeguard the welfare of and provide recreational facilities for visiting seafarers of all nationalities. This is achieved by providing financial support to the Sailors' Home and Missions to Seamen, the Apostleship of the Sea and the Danish Seamen's Church, Hong Kong. These organisations are unable to appeal directly to the public for financial support
support and can only derive their income from the services they offer, such as restaurant facilities and charges for accommodation in the case of Sailors' Home and Missions to Seamen. For Danish Seamen's Church their main alternative source of income is the subsidy from the relevant Danish body. The Committee's subventions are therefore very important sources of funds for them.
Finance
3.
The Committee relies upon donations from the shipping and commercial community for its
its financial resources. The total amount of donations collected in 1991-92 was $76,402. In the same year, a subvention of $70,000 was granted to the Sailors' Home and Missions to Seamen, the Apostleship of the Sea and $7,000 to the Danish Seamen's Church.
Shipping
4.
45,348 ocean-going vessels visited Hong Kong in 1991 as against 40,865 in 1990. Hong Kong remained as one of the world's busiest container ports, with 6.16 million 20-foot containers handled at the Kwai Chung Terminals in 1991 as against 5.1 million in 1990, showing a growth of 20.8%. About 72% of the ships stayed in port for less than two days in
1991.
Employment
5.
As
The situation remained more or less the same as last year. the shipping industry is still facing a shortage of manpower, especially that of young officers, it is relatively easy for foreign seafarers with the appropriate qualification to find a sea-faring job in Hong Kong especially as junior officers or engineers.
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