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FutureShip, Germanischer Lloyd’s (GL) maritime engineering and consultancy subsidiary, has announced the unveiling of its ECO Research Centre in Singapore.

The Centre, which aims to conduct research to strengthen FutureShip’s energy efficiency solutions for its Asian clients, will be supported by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) under its Maritime Cluster Fund (MCF).

The ECO Research Centre will be the first research and development (R&D) Centre to benefit from the enhancement to the MCF, which was expanded to cover the setting up of R&D and Test Centres, critical components in developing a maritime knowledge hub, in Singapore.

"We’re pleased to operate our R&D centre in Singapore, the global maritime hub, and we feel honoured to receive such a solid support from MPA," said Mr Albrecht Grell, Senior Executive Vice President of GL. "With a variety of initiatives to promote sustainable shipping and energy-efficient ship designs, Singapore is developing into a centre of excellence for maritime research and development. This provides us with an ideal operating environment, while fitting well with our long-term strategy to maintain our leading-edge position in maritime consulting services."

Mr Lam Yi Young, MPA’s Chief Executive said: "MPA has been actively promoting maritime R&D and innovation development over the past decade. The setting up of R&D and Test Centres in Singapore will further strengthen our maritime R&D capabilities and position us as a centre of excellence for maritime technology. We are thus happy to welcome the setting up of FutureShip’s ECO Research Centre in Singapore."

The Centre will embark on "Analytical Ship Performance Evaluation and Management" as its first project and will conduct a number of R&D projects over the next five years.

The ECO Research Centre will be an arm of FutureShip Singapore Pte Ltd. (FSPL). "Since the FSPL office was registered last October, we've seen a rapidly growing client base as we continued to roll out solutions to enhance the energy efficiency of ships,” said Mr Khorshed Alam, Managing Director of FutureShip Singapore.

"The Centre will surely sharpen our capability of addressing our clients’ needs with tailored products, backed by a global network of over 100 high-calibre engineers and consultants. Singapore's uniqueness as a green shipping hub also allows us to fan out from here to other areas in Asia," added Mr Alam.