Asian Shipowners’ Forum (ASF) was founded in April 1992 when its first meeting was held at Japan Shipping Club in Tokyo. As one of the important shipping organizations in the world, it consists of eight members from the shipowners’ associations of Asia Pacific nations, i.e. Australia, China, Hong Kong,India, Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei and Federation of ASEAN Shipowners’ Associations (FASA), consisting of Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The ASF membership together is estimated to control about 50% of the world merchant fleet today.

Following the principle agreed at the first ASF meeting, the venues for the annual meetings have been conducted on a rotational basis by the members from the North to South in geographical order. Similarly, the chairman of the ASF is on the same rotational basis. In addition, this chairman is also the convener for the ASF chairman's meeting, which is the board of the ASF.

Five standing committees are formed in the ASF and each is headed by a nominated chairman. They are:
- Seafarers Committee (SC)
- Shipping Economics Review Committee (SERC)
- Ship Insurance & Liability Committee (SILC)
- Safe Navigation & Environment Committee (SNEC)
- Ship Recycling committee (SRC)

The work is basically done between the annual ASF meetings, with each committee being committed to convene at least one meeting a year.

In viewing of the growing importance of the ASF, it was decided at the 16th annual meeting in Korea in May 2007 that the permanent office for the ASF should be set up and the location of the ASF office is in Singapore. After the ASF 2nd Chairmen’s Meeting held in July, the ASF opened its office Singapore in October 2007.

ASF supports the SaveOurSeafarers’ Campaign

The SOS Campaign has been ongoing for 6 months since the launch and a milestone of 20,000 individually signed letters have been sent through the SOS website to the heads of governments across the globe. The website has seen over 65,000 visitors from 175 countries since its launch.

While the results are encouraging, more needs to be done to gain government attention and hopefully result in effective action. You can contribute by visiting the campaign website at www.saveourseafarers.com and submit a personalized letter to the government using the simple facility available.