Standardising and harmonising electronic ship to shore communication for reporting purposes was high on the agenda at the IMO’s virtual Facilitation Committee (FAL) meeting held from 1-7 June 2021.
According to BIMCO, one of the outcomes from the IMO meeting in the Facilitation Committee (FAL 45) was that a new updated version of the IMO Compendium will soon be issued, based on the most recent adoptions.
The Compendium promotes and supports electronic data exchange conducted using standardized data models and their implementation guidelines.
The IMO Compendium also serves as a reference manual for creating and harmonising the systems needed to support transmission, receipt and response of information required for the arrival, stay and departure of the ship, persons and cargo via electronic data exchange.
The current version of the compendium already addresses a number of declarations required according to the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic (FAL Convention):
- General Declaration
- Cargo Declaration
- Ship’s Stores Declaration
- Crew’s Effects Declaration
- Crew List
- Passenger List
- Dangerous Goods Manifest
- Security-related information as required under SOLAS regulation XI-2/9.2.2
- Advance Notification for Waste Delivery to Port Reception Facilities; and
- Maritime Declaration of Health.
What is more, the Compendium has been extended to include additional e-business solutions beyond those regarding the FAL Convention, like on port logistic operational data and real time date, to ensure the easy implementation of the IMO Just-In-Time (JIT) concept and maritime certificates.
Currentl, more data sets are waiting to be included in the model.
The IMO Compendium changes the way the maritime industry and ports will be communicating. Shipping is entering the digital world, and this change will reduce the administrative burden and increase the efficiency of maritime trade and transport
stated Jeppe Skovbakke Juhl, Manager, Maritime Safety & Security at BIMCO.
Furthermore, BIMCO added that the positive news is that the FAL Committee made significant progress in the harmonisation and standardisation of electronic messaging by approving updates to the IMO Reference Data Model, as set out in the IMO Compendium.
FAL 45 also agreed on another measure addressing maritime digitalisation by developing guidelines to measure domestic implementation of the FAL convention.
The guidelines aim to create a tool to assess the opinion of maritime users about the FAL Convention, checking compliance with the administrative processes established by each national maritime authority and observing how well the maritime single window system is working, among other systems.
Although the IMO assessment is voluntary, it may give a much better picture to which degree the national public authorities have implemented the IMO Compendium and the associated IMO Reference Data Model
BIMCO concluded.
