Regional Training Course Held in Hong Kong

A regional training course on marine casualty investigation began on June 3 in Hong Kong, following a reception officiated by the Acting Director of Marine, Tsang Man-ching. The two-week course, to be held from today until next Friday (June 14) at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, is jointly organized by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (HKSARG) for practicing marine accident investigators from countries in the Asia and Pacific Islands Region.

Speaking at the reception, the Acting Director of Marine, Tsang Man-ching, said: " Our main objective in providing technical co-operation to IMO is to contribute our effort in enhancing standards of international shipping. "It is my hope that the training course will not only help improve the standards in marine accident investigations, but also foster the co-operation and sharing of experience amongst the marine administrations within the region."

Noting that it was a great pride for Hong Kong to hold the event for the second time in co-operation with the IMO, Tsang said the course aimed at assisting investigators of national maritime administrations in the Asia and Pacific Islands Region to uniformly carry out investigations into marine casualties and incidents in accordance with IMO resolution on the Code for the Investigation of Marine Casualties and Incidents. He said the course would cover investigation system, human factors affecting accidents, interviewing skills, casualties and incident analysis and case studies.

To enrich the curriculum, he said field visits to the Marine Department's Vessel Traffic Centre and Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre would also be arranged. Assistance from several distinguished experts with different experiences from overseas, the Mainland and Hong Kong have been obtained in running the course, Tsang added. Six officials from Hong Kong and 15 officials from 13 countries take part in the course. The participating countries include Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Iran, Korea DPR, Republic of Korea, Maldives, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.