Wireless leader Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) recently inaugurated a one-stop hub designed to provide its slew of services for Filipino seafarers, within the premises of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) along Taft Avenue in Manila.
MARINA, the government agency tasked with the development, promotion, and regulation of the country’s maritime industry, including the issuance of Seafarer’s Identification and Record Book (SIRB), partnered with Smart in putting up the hub to provide convenience to Filipino seafarers seeking for communication, remittance, and other services prior to deployment.
There are now an estimated 300,000 Filipino seafarers worldwide – or about a quarter of the world’s sailors, making the Philippines the world’s leading supplier of ship crewmen and women.
The country benefits largely from the remittance of seafaring Filipinos, who have sent to their loved-ones back home over two billion US dollars just within the first half of 2011, according to the latest figures from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
At the one-stop hub in MARINA, Smart offers information on various services designed to answer the needs of seafaring Filipinos. In the forefront is Smart Link – the country’s first and only satellite telecommunication service for Filipino seafarers.
Smart Link, deployed across 7,500 maritime vessels all over the world, provides coverage to seafarers sailing within Asia-Pacific, Indian Ocean, Middle East, Africa, and some parts of Europe and the Mediterranean.
Smart also provides its Infoboard service to the country’s top ship crew manning agencies — enabling them to use any Internet-enabled computer to send important announcements, such as training venues and deployment schedules, to seafarers or their loved-ones, whose Smart cellphones are registered to the Infoboard.
These messages will be received by the registered members’ cellphone via SMS, at no cost to them, wherever they are in the country and at any time of the day.
Continue reading at Manila Bulletin
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