Rotary Engineering spearheads Petroleum & Petrochemicals Technical Institute

Singapore's Rotary Arabia and Saudi's Technical and Vocational Training Corporation ink MoU on technical training collaboration.

Rotary Arabia, a subsidiary of Singapore-listed petroleum & petrochemicals infrastructure group Rotary Engineering Ltd, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) to establish the Petroleum & Petrochemicals Technical Institute (PPTi) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Sunday. TVTC is the Saudi government's entity responsible for development of the workforce in the Kingdom in both technical and vocational education, according to a Rotary Engineering report.

The MOU was signed by Mr Chia Kim Piow, Chairman of Rotary Engineering Limited and Rotary Arabia, and H.E. Dr. Ali Bin Nasser Al-Ghafis, Governor of TVTC. H.E. Wong Kwok Pun, Singapore Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, witnessed the signing that took place in Riyadh. Also present were Dr Fahad Aldohish, the Managing Director of strategic partnership in TVTC, which helped implement this agreement with Rotary, and Eng. Feroz Siddiqui, Centre Director (Riyadh) from International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the Singapore agency which helped facilitate the union between Rotary and TVTC towards the setup of this technical Institute in Saudi Arabia. IE Singapore is the lead agency promoting the overseas growth of Singapore-based enterprises and international trade.

Said Mr Chua Taik Him, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of IE Singapore, "It is a positive development for Rotary to leverage on its human resources requirement to introduce a training programme which can contribute to skills development of the Kingdom. We encourage Singapore companies to develop human resources for long-term and sustainable growth when investing overseas."

The newly established Institute is Rotary's first training institute outside of Asia. It will support the engineering, procurement and construction services in petroleum and petrochemical industries by training young Saudis to undertake the role of safety officers in future projects. Together with its four other training institutes in China, India and Bangladesh, this new technical institute will support talent development for Rotary's global work force (GWF) programme. Rotary's GWF programme enhances the company's competitiveness by developing a highly skilled workforce readily deployable to projects around the world. This means that Saudis graduating from this technical institute could potentially qualify for jobs not just in Rotary's projects in Jubail but also globally.

Said Mr Chia, "Safety is both one of our core values as well as an integral part of our business, we place great emphasis on safety officers promoting and overseeing the company's culture of safe working practices. That is also why we have identified safety officers as an attractive career option for young Saudis. By offering both training opportunities and working experience, we hope to increase the number of Saudis in these positions in the Kingdom. We are committed to working with Saudi Aramco Total
Refining & Petrochemical Company (SATORP), Saudi Aramco and TVTC in developing the Institute’s capabilities to support the industry."

Mr Abdul Aziz Al Mandil, Managing Director for Rotary Arabia, added, "Rotary has a wealth of experience in providing training for technical skill sets, and these courses could also be added to the institute in the future."

As part of their training, trainees at the institute will also observe alongside Rotary's safety officers at SATORP’s Jubail export refinery project in Jubail. The Institute is expected to accept its first student intake in September 2010.

Singapore is well known for its Jurong Island success and companies have since built up capabilities and strong track records in supporting the downstream refining and petrochemical activities, including Rotary. With the Kingdom moving into the downstream works of the oil & gas value chain and the processing and refining of petroleum products, Singapore-based companies are equipped to provide quality and efficient supporting services for the industry in Saudi Arabia.