Past Event
SEA JAPAN 2002
International Maritime Exhibition and Conference
April 10-12, 2002
Tokyo Big Sight Exhibition Center
Tokyo, Japan
www.seajapan.ne.jp
SEA JAPAN VIPs
Speech by John Kuehmayer on behalf of the foreign exhibitors
The one square meter boothes
Joint booth of the Austrian Marine Equipment Manufacturers
Miss Sea Japan and the Chairman of AMEM
SEA JAPAN 2002 - Opening Ceremony
Draft of the speech, held on behalf of the European Marine Equipment Manufacturers/Exhibitors
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Distinguished Guests,
Good morning and welcome back to SEA JAPAN 2002 !
It is a great pleasure for the European Marine Equipment Manufacturers/Exhibitors to be back to SEA JAPAN here in TOKYO - an exhibition,which thanks to the organizers CMP and SEATRADE is spearheading the efforts to establish a real market place, not a virtual one, where buyers and sellers meet each other and exchange their views on shipbuilding in a dramatically changing political and economic environment. The European maritime industry has been participating in SEA JAPAN since the very beginning, offering problem solving capability and expertise at exceptional high levels to the - what I still consider - No. 1 shipbuilder in the world.
Let me emphazise, that shipbuilding and shipping cannot be immune from substantial changes in consumer spending patterns and the subsequent flow of trade between exporting and importing countries!
We shall have to live with the fact, that general predictions for the shipbuilding industry as a whole will no longer be possible! Container shipbuilding will have an absolutely different future in comparison to tankers, cruise ships might experience a calm, while naval shipyards are booming, if terrorism continues to threaten Western societies and it will - as long as "rambo"-capitalism is paving its way with ever increasing speed and brutality.
The enormous demand for safer - attack proof - installations and constructions on board a ship will boost specific segments of the industry, which will experience a boom never anticipated.
The European marine equipment suppliers consider themselves to be a vital element of the hightech industry - admittedly with a long tradition - but open to all improvements of the Information Technology.E-business will govern the performance of all business processes,their interactions and the exchange of data in a digital supply chain environment - a way of cooperation, "keiretsu" has been teaching us in many areas in the past already and - by the way - one of the secrets of the exceptional rise of the Japanese shipbuilding industry to world leadership.
European equipment suppliers are ready to join Japanese shipbuilders in establishing a digital platform, defined as a system approach to managing the entire flow of informations, values, physical goods and services from basic design/engineering via tendering and procurement to the final use, repair and maintenance of a ship - in other words, the whole life cycle.
We shall enter these new procurement structures through a "portal", that has been designed to the specific demands of the shipbuilding community, dealing in products and services that have to have approvals from Classification Societies and in many cases are characterized less by patents and more by branding and high level images of the companies and their products/services.
We are happy to experience with you this uniquely situated exhibition and conference, we would like to encourage you to forget for a few moments the "cost-o-down" issue and join us in talking a fascinating language - the language of innovation, the language of technological progress and leadership!
Let's take the chance to tighten human relationships in an increasingly digitalized business environment, let's fasten the seat belt for a rough ride we both are heading for!