The General Secretary of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Kitack Lim, highlighted the importance of digitalization, big data, and new technologies such as artificial intelligence on enabling the post-COVID recovery.
Speaking during a webinar, Kitack Lim commented that
Cooperation between shipping, ports and logistics will be vital for enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of shipping and therefore facilitating trade and fostering economic recovery and prosperity.
The Sec-Gen also stated that the capitalization of shipping will make the sector’s operations more efficient, “much more efficient for the more than 11 billion tons of goods that are traded annually by sea across the globe.”
IMO has a direct role in driving shipping’s digitalization, also ensuring safety, environmental protection as well as cyber security. Similarly, the need for digitalization was noted by IMO’s Facilitation Head, Julian Abril.
Discussions are under way in order to make a single maritime window mandatory, with the aim that all data for arrival and departure of ships is submitted through a single point and transmitted to the relevant agencies involved. To remind, the European maritime single window environment, which was agreed in early February 2019, aims to address the issue of numerous, non-harmonised reporting obligations by linking the existing national maritime single windows together in a coordinated and harmonised way.
Kitack Lim concluded that
Maritime transport is and will remain a vital global link in supporting sustainable international trade.