A two minute ‘hero film’ promoting the importance of the shipping industry and seafarers to global trade and business has been produced by Bimco with UK television production company ITN.
The film Ships Make the World Go is the precursor to a series of documentaries that new Bimco secretary general and chief executive David Loosley hopes can raise awareness of shipping to new levels in the wake of the Covid-19 induced crew-change crisis.
It will initially be launched via a Facebook campaign, with Bimco hoping the greater reach now achievable through social media can make a bigger impact than previous efforts to widely promote the shipping industry.
Loosley said Bimco will reach out to the World Economic Forum and other maritime organisations with the "hero film" as part of the campaign while specific issues such as the piracy problem in the Gulf of Guinea could be the subject of hard-hitting documentaries.
“We are trying to make a connection with the global public,” he said. “I have got to believe it will have an impact.”
He hopes it will help the ongoing crew-change crisis and push the message of how important shipping is to other business sectors.
Loosley has been in charge at Copenhagen-based Bimco for six months, after heading the Institute of Marine Engineering Science & Technology, where he rose in the ranks after starting in 2012. Loosley, who has also been operations director at the UK Hydrographic Office and served at sea for 10 years with the UK Royal Navy, took over from Angus Frew at Bimco.
“Now is a good time to make decision-makers and the public aware of how medicine, food, cars and clothes are transported, and why seafarers too should have key worker status,” Loosley added.
“We hope the film will serve as a tool that we and the entire industry can use to achieve the common goal of raising awareness about shipping outside of our own industry. Without shipping, life would be different.”
