Carlos Salinas, chairman and chief executive of Philippine Transmarine Carriers (PTC), has been named the country's entrepreneur of the year by Business World Online.

After founding the company in 1979, Mr Salinas quickly learned the value of providing training and development support for the maritime sector - and after enrolling many Filipinos on foreign training programmes, he established the PTC Training Centre in 1992.

In the years that followed, the institute - later renamed the Philippine Center for Advanced Maritime Simulation and Training - was recognised by a host of international training certification bodies and was certified three times by Det Norske Veritas, one of the world's leading classification societies.

Now, the company is repeating this success with project partner Mapua Institute of Technology at Mapua-PTC College of Marine Education and Training, which opened last year.

PTC also maintains a strong commitment to corporate social responsibility and counts among its recent successes the opening of the Pacific Terraces Community Imus, Cavite, which provides affordable housing for Filipino seafarers and their families.

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