IMO has been participating in the Asia Pacific Heads of Maritime Safety Agencies (APHoMSA) at their annual gathering (14-17 March), which has been held in Queenstown, New Zealand. The meeting began with a workshop on domestic ship safety, including ferries operating on non-international routes, and concluded with a port visit to domestic ships. Discussions during the main part of the meeting (15-16 March) were devoted to country papers falling under each of the pillars of the APHoMSA: regional cooperation; marine environment protection; safety at sea including the human element; and marine casualty and incident response.
Some 55 delegates attended the meeting, including representatives from 15 out of the 20 APHoMSA members, as well as representatives from observer organizations. Support from IMO’s technical cooperation programme has helped increase the number of participating members attending, compared to previous years, and in particular the number of female attendees. Of the 14 female delegates, two are attending as heads of delegation of APHoMSA members.
The meeting was chaired by Maritime New Zealand and IMO was represented by the Director, Technical Cooperation Division, and the IMO Regional Coordinator for East Asia.