During its virtual meeting last week, Tokyo MoU PSC Committee considered and agreed to accept the proposal by the Paris MoU to carry out a CIC on Ballast Water Management (BWM) in 2025.
The Port State Control Committee, the governing body under the Tokyo MoU, held its 31st meeting virtually from 21 to 22 January 2021. The meeting, which was originally scheduled to be held in Republic of Korea in December 2020, but was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic, was attended by 21 member Authorities.
Every year, the Paris and the Tokyo MoUs jointly conduct a CIC on a specific aspect on shipping safety. The CIC is taking place from 1 September to 30 November. However, the CIC 2020 was postponed due to pandemic and a CIC on Stability (in general) for 2021 has been ageed so far.
Among others, the Committee took note of the amended schedule for future joint CICs due to the pandemic, and specifically:
- CIC on STCW in 2022,
- CIC on Fire Safety in 2023,
- CIC on Crew Wages and Seafarer Employment Agreement under MLC in 2024.
The Committee considered and agreed to accept the proposal by the Paris MoU to carry out a CIC on Ballast Water Management (BWM) in 2025.
In addition, representatives in the meeting were informed of the results of a trial on remote follow-up inspection procedure and agreed to extend the trial for a longer period, in order to gain more experience to validate and improve the procedure. The purpose of the remote follow-up inspection is to allow PSCOs to verify and close deficiencies, without physically visiting the vessel under specific circumstances.
While noting a significant decrease of the number of inspections conducted in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic, decided to publish 2020 data without redaction in the Annual Report.
