Two members of the Shipping Association of Jamaica's (SAJ) managing committee have been named among the women who have made significant contribution to the development of the regional shipping industry.

They are Corah-Ann Robertson-Sylvester, immediate past president of the Caribbean Shipping Association (CSA) and chief executive officer of Seaboard Jamaica, and Denise Lyn Fatt, managing director of Freight Handlers Limited.

Roberston-Sylvester and Fatt were among nine women named by Clive Forbes, general manager and executive director of the CSA, during the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP) and the Dominican Port Authority's (APORDOM) hemispheric seminar on 'Challenges of Women in Ports in the Twenty-first Century'. The seminar was held in the Dominican Republic, August 17-21.

According to Forbes, "A holistic view of the regional mari-time industry shows a diverse number of women who have and continue to make significant contributions to the deve-lopment of the industry".

Others who were named include: Cynthia Monetarists Pappadoplo, owner, Evergreen Agent in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador; Joanne Edwards-Alleyne, general manager, Shipping Association of Trinidad and Tobago; Rosalee Donaldson, vice-president, Port Authority of Jamaica; Erica Luke, owner, Eric Hassell & Son, Barbados; Sonja Voisin-Tom, owner, gulf Shipping Limited, Trinidad; Linda Projift, commercial director, Port of Paramaribo, Suriname; and the late Monica Silvera, past executive director and general manager of the CSA.

Re-elected president

Mrs Robertson-Sylvester became the first female president of CSA in 2003 and was re-elected president in 2005. She has been a member of the managing committee of the SAJ since 2005 and is also a director of the Port Authority of Jamaica and Jamaica Freight and Shipping.

Robertson-Sylvester is the second woman to have joined the Managing Committee of the SAJ. The honour of first female director of the SAJ goes to Paula Pinnock, who joined the Managing Committee in 2000.

Denise Lyn Fatt is the newest member of the SAJ's Managing Committee and is the third female to be elected to the committee. She also serves as chairman of the SAJ's Agents Committee.

Forbes noted that Caribbean women are capable of holding as many managerial positions in business as their international counterparts, however, the talent needs to be identified and training conducted. He pointed out that the implementation of a regional network of cooperation of women within the port community should be formed to define the vision and the mission for women in the region. He added that an Action Committee should also be formed to develop, plan and execute the vision and mission.

The global crisis, he said, has brought into focus how interconnected and interdependent the Caribbean region is. "There can be no successful international cooperation of women in the port community without the appropriate integration of the relevant regional hemisphere groupings that share a commonality of purposes within the maritime industry," Forbes said.

The OAS/CIP/APORDOM seminar was aimed at promoting the exchange of information on topics related to women in ports in relation to the 21st century challenges; to build sector awareness on the important role of women in port development; and to integrate and share experiences from different perspectives towards the strengthening of the hemispheric maritime port sector.