IMO and the Republic of Korea have signed agreements to tackle marine litter, develop a a tailor-made web-based e-navigation service in the Philippines and support the port-related training needs of LDCs and SIDS to reduce emissions.
The three agreements were signed (17 July) by IMO (International Maritime Organization) Secretary-General Kitack Lim and Mr. Jonguk Hong, Director General of Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of Republic of Korea, during an event on the sidelines of the IMO Council 129th session.
The projects:
- The RegLitter project will aim to tackle sea-based marine plastic litter through capacity building and policy and institutional reforms at national level, leading to regional cooperation in East Asia. This regional project will build on the work implemented under the ongoing Norway-IMO-FAO Glolitter Project that is building a global foundation to address this important issue.
- The SMART-C Traffic project aims to support the Government of Philippines in the implementation of relevant regulations in the SOLAS Convention and to develop and pilot test a tailor-made web-based e-navigation service that can efficiently analyse and manage maritime safety information and search and rescue related information in an internet-based environment in the Philippines.
- The GHG SMART Expansion aims at supporting the port -elated training needs of Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to reduce emissions from maritime sector. This will be an expansion of the scope of the ongoing and successful IMO-Republic of Korea GHG-SMART project that focuses on shipping, and aims to prepare these countries for implementation of the IMO GHG Strategy.
Overall funding support for these three projects will be around US$12.3 million dollars. The projects will run on average for four to five years.
Two further SMART-C agreements are planned to be signed later this year which will bring the total value of the projects under this Republic of Korea ODA programme to approximately US$20 million.
We do hope that more ODA agencies will take note of this development and this innovative IMO-Republic of Korea partnership model and view maritime as an important sector where development assistance can make meaningful impacts for the people and the planet
… said Jose Matheickal, Director of IMO’s Department of Partnerships and Projects (DPP).
To remind, further on the subject of marine pollution, MEPC 80 noted and concurred with the ongoing work in the Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR) to address the risks to the marine environment from plastic pellets.
