Integrated Technical Co News

International Maritime Organization (IMO) has a key role in implementing a number of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which relate directly or indirectly to the oceans, protection of the environment and the maritime industry. How to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and implement the UN SDGS is therefore a key theme which underpins the work of IMO's Technical Co-operation Committee, which oversees IMO's integrated technical co-operation programme (ITCP). The Committee is meeting for its 67th session (17-19 July). The Committee will be invited to approve the proposed ITCP for 2018-2019, which includes 10 global programmes.

IMO & IPIECA, the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues, jointly launch a new Global Initiative (GI). The GI programme, aimed at improving the oil spill preparedness and response capabilities in south east Asia was launched at a recent regional workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia. IMO and IPIECA have, for a number of years, been working with their international and regional partners to establish this new regional programme, which demonstrates a major commitment from both Government and industry to improve oil spill preparedness and response in the region.

IMO Secretary General, Koji Sekimizu, heads a team to inform a high-level ministerial symposium of critical maritime developments. The four-day visit, hosted by the Maritime Authority of Jamaica (MAJ), will culminate in a High Level Symposium (HLS) of the Ministers of Transport in the Caribbean, drawing delegates from a variety of the region’s States and overseas territories, as well as Jamaica. The HLS is intended to inform the responsible Ministers in the region on critical developments that will affect their countries’ reputations as responsible maritime states.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), to support IMO’s Integrated Technical Co-operation Programme (ITCP) capacity-building activities through the provision of experts and hostship facilities for the delivery of ITCP activities, as well as the secondment of staff from AMSA. The new MoU is aimed at assisting developing countries to comply with international maritime safety and environmental protection laws and standards by understanding, implementing and enforcing IMO instrumentsAMSA has a long history of engagement in technical capacity-building…

"I could not think of a better way to formally start the ‘Year of the Seafarer’ other than by commissioning a new training centre, such as the new branch of the Arab Academy in Port Said,” said IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos on Saturday, 9 January, as he formally opened an extension to the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT). The extension is on a new 77-acre site allocated for that purpose by the Governor of Port Said, who also officiated during the ceremony together with other senior officials of Egypt and Dr. Mohamed Farghaly, Director General of the AASTMT since October 2007. This latest expansion of the Academy comes within the context of significant development in the City of Port Said…

IMO's Strategic Plan for the next six years and High-level Action Plan for the next two years were updated by the Organization's highest governing body, the Assembly, when it met for its 25th regular session from 19 to 30 November, 2007. The Assembly also approved the Organization's budget for the next two years, elected a new Council, confirmed the re-appointment of Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos for a further term and adopted a wide range of technical and other resolutions. IMO's high-level action plan sets out in detail the planned "outputs" for the biennium and links them to the six-year strategic plan. The new strategic plan supersedes the previous version, and identifies strategic directions that will enable IMO to achieve its mission objectives in the years ahead.

IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos has highlighted both the environmental and the economic threat posed by the carriage of micro-organisms around the world in ships' ballast water and has called for a balanced approach to the environmental concerns identified, related economic considerations and the safety of life on ships in his opening remarks to a Diplomatic Conference to adopt an international convention on ballast water management for ships. The carriage of ballast water is essential to the safe operation of ships, but it also poses a significant environmental threat as literally thousands of microbes and marine organisms are routinely ingested into ships' ballast tanks.

shipping and the prevention of marine pollution from ships. international conference held from 9 to13 February 2004 at IMO's London Headquarters. The Convention will require all ships to implement a Ballast Water and Sediments Management Plan. water management procedures to a given standard. but after a phase-in period. criteria set out in the Convention and to IMO guidelines yet to be developed. IMO Secretary-General Mr. Efthimios E. successful outcome of the conference. harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens across the seas and oceans of the world. ballast water and thus towards safeguarding the biodiversity of the oceans", Mr. Mitropoulos said. given the consensus decisions you were able to make on a subject of undeniable complexity.

In the run-up to the 1 July 2004 international deadline for implementation of the maritime security measures adopted by IMO in December 2002, a far-reaching and multi-faceted programme of technical assistance by the Organization, aimed at helping Governments strengthen maritime and port security, is in full swing and having a significant impact, particularly in the developing world. IMO launched its global technical co-operation programme on maritime security in January 2002, 11 months before the IMO Diplomatic Conference on Maritime Security adopted amendments to the SOLAS Convention and the related International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS) in December 2002.

An international fund is urgently needed in order to establish search and rescue (SAR) services along the African coastlines, including the setting up of up to five regional Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres (MRCCs) and 26 Maritime Rescue Sub-Centres (MRSCs), the IMO Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) has agreed. MSC Chairman Mr. Tom Allan (United Kingdom) said the Committee would recommend to the IMO Council, which meets in June, that an international SAR Fund is established as soon as possible to support the establishment and continued maintenance of the MRCCs and MRSCs in Africa. The aim is to ensure that the basic communications…

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is to organize a high-level, sub-regional seminar in Aden, Yemen, on maritime security and prevention of piracy and armed robbery against ships. Aimed at senior officials in the maritime and port authorities of selected countries in the region, the seminar, to be convened in April 2005, will provide an opportunity for participants to gain a deeper insight into measures to prevent and eradicate acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships and of the provisions to strengthen ship and port security, in particular those contained in the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention chapter XI/2 and the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code. The five-day event will be split into three subject-specific sections.

IMO’s technical co-operation activities in Africa have received a major funding boost with the conclusion of an agreement between IMO and NORAD, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. Under the terms of a Memorandum of Agreement signed between the two organizations on 30 October 2006, NORAD will provide $226,000 towards three technical co-operation activities in Africa in the field of maritime security, to be executed through IMO’s Integrated Technical Co-operation Programme (ITCP). The agreement sees the establishment of a bilateral trust fund arrangement between IMO and NORAD. Norway has long been a major donor to the ITCP and…

Today marks the 29th celebration of World Maritime Day, the annual occasion when the International Maritime Organization (IMO) leads the world in honouring shipping. This year the theme for World Maritime Day is Technical Co-operation: IMO's response to the 2005 World Summit. Addressing the international maritime community in his World Maritime Day message, IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos said that "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.

According to reports, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the non-governmental industry organization Interferry have signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalizing the two Organizations’ intent to work together towards enhancing the safety of non-Convention ferries by collaborating, through IMO’s Integrated Technical Co-operation Programme, on related capacity-building activities within developing countries. The move is part of a continued drive to improve safety in a sector which has seen repeated accidents and loss of life in recent years. Under the agreement, the two Organizations will work closely with interested parties such as Bangladesh…

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) is hosting an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Seminar/Workshop on Maritime and Port Security for East Asian Countries from 26 to 30 Aug 2002 at the M Hotel. The five-day event (3-day seminar and 2-day workshop) is held for the first time in Singapore. It aims to raise the awareness of the regional governments participating in the Seminar/Workshop and the shipping industry on the measures to prevent and suppress unlawful acts, including terrorism directed at ports, port personnel as well as ships at sea and in port areas, passengers and crews. It also aims to provide participants with guidance to assess…