On 19 September, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen maritime relations between both countries by facilitating vessels calling at each other’s ports with faster checks and clearances.
The signing took place between Ms Quah Ley Hoon, Chief Executive of MPA and Mr Noriel Araúz, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Administrator of AMP, on the auspices of a Singaporean delegation visit to Panama.
Dr Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Senior Minister of State for Health of Singapore led the first high-level delegation from Singapore to Panama, under the new government of Panama.
Under this MoU, the maritime authorities of Panama and Singapore will cooperate on maritime matters, including the promotion of the use and acceptance of ship’s electronic certificates to facilitate port state inspections, the exercise of PSC inspections by both countries, as well as personnel exchange.
The use of electronic certificates and cooperation on PSC reduces administrative burden of issuing, sending and keeping hard-copy certificates onboard, facilitates regulatory oversight and enforcement action by the authorities and expedites port clearances.
As such, the agreement is expected to facilitate vessels registered with either Panama or Singapore calling at each other’s ports with faster checks and clearances.
The Singapore and Panama ship registries are among the largest in the world. This cooperation will strengthen maritime relations between our two countries. It will also yield significant benefits through speedier port clearances for vessels registered with our two countries calling at our ports,
…stated Dr Lam.
We are pleased to cooperate and bring to our customers and ship owners the most advanced technologies to alleviate the administrative burden and facilitate access to port state inspections, port state control inspections, and port clearances. It will be of great benefit for Singapore and Panama Ship Registries,
…added Mr Noriel Araúz.
See also:
- Infographic: MPA Singapore port performance for March 2019
- PSA Singapore releases its 2018 operations review
