Business News of 2012-06-29

Harvard Marine Int'l signs MoU with Go Marines

Ghana’s Harvard Marine International has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with its counterparts from Australia, the Go Marine Group.

The agreement was signed by Captain Ronald McGrath, Chief Executive Officer of Harvard Marine International Ghana and Mald Wardle, the Executive Director of the Australian Go Marine Group.

The Deputy Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Hon. Bosiako Sekyere and Deputy Minister for Energy, Hon. Buah witnessed the signing ceremony.

The agreement among other interventions is expected to provide Harvard Marines International access to a large fleet of state-of-the-art newly built vessels owned by Go Marine.

The agreement also sought to open up avenues for employment in specialized fields such as logistics and surveying.

Speaking to Citi Business News, the Executive Director of Go Marine Group, Wardle said, “It is an exciting step for the Ghanaian people to get onto this job because it is lucrative and once they get the certificate from Harvard Marine International they can do whatever they want to do in the world, especially in the oil and gas industry.”

“We are trying to give an opportunity to them to explore their talents in the oil and gas industry,” he added.

The General Manager and Director in charge of Research and Planning at Harvard Marine International, Kamil Mohammed, explained the rationale behind the agreement.

“Go Marine Group has a fleet of state-of-the-art newly built vessels that they are going to bring to Harvard Marines International to manage.

“Harvard Marine has got a petroleum training institute where people are trained in offshore activities and these graduates of the institute will be placed on these vessels,” Mohammed said.

According to Mohammed, a large chunk of the first group of Harvard Marine 150 graduates are going to Australia to train under a worker exchange programme in companies such as Go Marine and after one year they will come back to Ghana and work.

He added that the agreement was one of such major collaborations Harvard Marines intended signing with other major stakeholders to improve the nation’s marine industry.**