The Marine Environment Protection of the South-East Asian Seas (MEPSEAS) project has been extended, by one year, to 2022.
Run by IMO and funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the MEPSEAS project assists participating developing countries to address high-priority marine environment issues related to ships and shipping, in particular through implementing IMO's key international environmental conventions.
Norad announced its decision to extend its assistance at the project's virtual Extra Ordinary High Level Regional Meeting (17 March), organized by IMOs Department of Partnerships and Projects.
The meeting discussed the impact of COVID 19 on the project activities and the countries supported by the Strategic Partners agreed on the next steps in the Project. These include focusing on the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Remote Programming Exercise (CME-RPE) which will also be held virtually for the participating countries.
The meeting was hosted by the Government of the Philippines through the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) and attended by delegations from the seven participating countries of the MEPSEAS project: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, and representatives of the project's strategic partners, including the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Tokyo MOU Secretariat (TMOU), Partnership for Environment Management in the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA), Federation of ASEAN Shipowners' Associations (FASA) represented by the Filipino Shipowners Association (FASA) and Women in Maritime Asia/Women in Maritime Philippines (WIMA-Asia/WIMAPhil).