During its 26th PSC Committee Meeting held in Malaysia
Representatives of the Port State Control Committee, the governing body under the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region (Tokyo MOU), met in Putrajaya, Malaysia, from 5 to 8 October 2015 for its Twenty-Sixth meeting.
The meeting was chaired by Mr. Abdul Samad Bin Shaik Osman, Principal Assistant Director, Maritime Industry Control Division, Marine Department Malaysia. The meeting was officially opened by Dato Sri Liow Tiong Lai, Minister of Transport of Malaysia. In his opening speech, Mr. Liow pointed out that port State control plays important role for promotion of effective implementation of international maritime conventions.
Furthermore, he commended that Tokyo MOU, as one of the leading regional PSC regimes, had made great success and remarkable achievement on elimination of substandard ships in the region. Lastly, he reconfirmed the active participation in and continuous contribution to the Tokyo MOU by Malaysia.
Prior to the Committee meeting, the ninth meeting of the Technical Working Group (TWG) was convened from 2 to 3 October 2015. The TWG meeting discussed matters relating to PSC technical procedures and guidelines, the Concentrated Inspection Campaigns; information system and information exchange, evaluation of work done by intersessional technical groups and technical co-operation activities. Upon completion of a three-year term as a Co-operating Member Authority, Peru applied for a full membership of the Tokyo MOU.
The Committee considered the application by Peru and the report of a fact finding mission, which confirmed full compliance with the qualitative membership criteria by Peru. In accordance with provision of the Memorandum, the Committee unanimously agreed to accept Peru as the 20th member Authority. The Committee also considered the application for Co-operating Member status by Panama.
The Committee unanimously agreed to accept Panama as a Co-operating Member of the Tokyo MOU in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Memorandum. The Committee reviewed and revised the Strategic Plan, Strategic Directions and the list of planned actions for five-year period from 2016 to 2020. The Committee considered and approved the amendments to the guidelines for the detention review panel, guidelines for the responsibility assessment of RO and guidelines for PSC officers on Maritime Labour Convention.
The Committee approved the new version of the Port State Control Manual, which will be published internally at the beginning of December 2015. The Committee considered and approved the final report of the CIC on STCW Hours of Rest 2014. Having considered relevant circumstance, the Committee decided to conduct the CIC on Cargo Securing Arrangements in 2016. In this connection, the Committee approved the questionnaire and guidelines for the CIC on Cargo Securing Arrangements in principle. By the agreement with the Paris MOU, the Committee confirmed to carry out a joint CIC on Safety of Navigation in 2017. Also, the Committee approved a revised strategic plan for technical co-operation programmes for the period of 2016-2020.
Source & Image Credit: Tokyo MoU
