IMO Previews World Maritime Day 2006

World Maritime Day 2006 will be celebrated on September 28. IMO's theme for this year's World Maritime Day is "Technical Co-operation: IMO's response to the 2005 World Summit", which was chosen to focus on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) adopted by the United Nations as the world community's response to challenges such as hunger, disease and environmental degradation. "Maritime activity has a key role to play in meeting the Millennium Development Goals, for shipping not only moves the world's burgeoning trade, but can also contribute substantially to sustainable development, while international commerce promotes production, job creation and greater socio-economic prosperity. And the combination of all these has, undoubtedly, the potential to lift people from hunger and poverty and also eradicate life-threatening diseases," said Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, Secretary-General.