Classification society
The Korean Register of Shipping (KR) has announced that it has been selected as the very first recipient of the new
K-Award, launched at the Kormarine Conference 2015 in Busan, South Korea.
Kormarine, which is this year being held between October 20th and 23rd, is one of the world's largest marine trade exhibitions. The K-Award has been established to honour and recognize organizations or individuals for their achievements in the world's shipping and shipbuilding industries.
Under the theme
'Green Technology, Green Opportunity', the conference is attempting to raise awareness of eco-friendly technology by focusing on energy and environmental matters in the shipbuilding and marine industry.
KR was recognized for its contribution to the protection of world's oceanic environment and the development of green ship technology.
KR is the first Asian classification society to be accepted by the US Coast Guard as an Independent Laboratory (IL) to undertake tests, inspections, and evaluations for ballast water management systems. In addition, the classification society opened the world's first green ship equipment test certification centre in May, 2015. The centre is an international green-ship hub, developing, testing and evaluating core green-ship technology and technical services.
Commenting on the award,
Dr. B. S. Park, chairman and CEO of KR, said: "We are honoured and delighted to receive the 'K Award'. It is particularly meaningful for us, because KR is the very first recipient of this important prize. We take this as encouragement and a request from the whole maritime industry to continue our important work to protect the marine environment and enhance eco-friendly technology. We will continue to actively support the development of relevant technology and will research ways of providing technical services of even higher quality."
KR says that it has also decided to donate the prize of KRW 10,000,000 (equivalent to around US$ 8,800) to an academic institution to further enhance research in maritime technology.
