Minister Campbell bids farewell to retiring Commodore Davy Rolle

Minister Campbell bids farewell to retiring Commodore Davy Rolle

NASSAU, The Bahamas – Minister of Transport, the Hon. Frankie Campbell bade farewell to retiring Commodore Davy Rolle during a gala dinner held at SuperClubs Breezes on Friday, January 12, 2018.

In 2010, Commodore Davy F. Rolle was appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) after completing 30 years of military service with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

Minister Campbell thanked the Commodore for his years in the Public Service, and his significant contribution to the country.

“As the Managing Director, Commodore Rolle was responsible for the day-to-day management of the Bahamas Ship Registry, which is the one of the largest in the world with over 1500 totaling 64 million gross tonnage,” said Minister Campbell. “The Bahamas Maritime Authority also has the responsibility of advising the government on regulatory shipping matters to ensure that The Bahamas can fulfill its international obligations under the international Conventions as adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).”

The Minister said the latter is of ‘critical’ importance to the country given the archipelagic nature of The Bahamas and its reliance on maritime trade.

“Shipping is an international industry with maritime transport representing more than 80 percent of global trade and the IMO is the regulatory forum that develops the standards for the ships, persons sailing on the ships and companies managing such ships,” he said.

He explained that the Council of the IMO has the responsibility of supervising the work of the organization.

“I am pleased to note that under the Commodore and the Authority’s team in conjunction with the Bahamas High Commission (representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) was elected to the IMO Council on four occasions,” said Minister Campbell.

He said that membership of the IMO Council represents a ‘significant’ achievement not only for the nation but also regionally for the Caribbean and globally for small island developing states.

The Commodore, according to Minister Campbell, was also instrumental in several initiatives in the maritime sector, including being one of the first countries to ratify and implement the International Labour Organization (ILO) Maritime Labour Convention, which provides for more suitable working and living conditions for seafarers.

Mr. Campbell said that Commodore’s military background allowed him to utilize his management experience to “ensure the task was achieved with the resources available.”

“Let’s get the job done became his buzzword as he strived to balance the national objectives with the delivery of a quality service to all the Authority’s stakeholders,” he said.  “Getting the job done has resulted in global expansion of the Registry’s service offering — through opening of offices in Hong Kong and Greece with the latter being the largest ship ownership country, and the former targeting a greater share of the Far East market.”

The Bahamas, said Minister Campbell, remains the flag of choice for passenger ships.

“The Authority’s oversight of the quality performance and standards has been rewarded by the Bahamas achieving United States Coast Guard ‘Qualship 21’ (quality shipping for the 21st century), and being a non-targeted/low risk flag with Europe and the Far East,” said Minister Campbell. “These matrices are key performance indicators with the shipping sector and their achievement is attributed the effective management and oversight of the Registry by Commodore and the highly professional and dedicated BMA staff.”

He added that the Commodore’s background as a former educator enabled him to focus on the importance of training and education.

“In this vein and a national level, he continued, the strengthening of the national capacity [was achieved] through financial offering to the Bahamas Maritime Cadet Corps and scholarships to State University of New York (SUNY), California Maritime and LJM Maritime Academy.  These schemes provided shipping as a viable career options for young Bahamians,” said the Minister.

“Last and not least, I wish to highlight Commodore’s chairmanship of the Committee that drafted the Bahamas National Maritime Policy which was central to the development of the broader shipping strategy.”

The Minister bade Commodore Rolle farewell, and wished him well in his future endeavours.

 

For more information contact Bahamas Information Services.