IMO has delivered a regional seminar in Bahrain on the benefits of the IMO Facilitation (FAL) Convention, which deals with the various clearance procedures required when ships enter or leave ports. Designed to encourage more states to ratify the Convention, the seminar focused on the practical use of electronic data exchange between ships and shore, using the so-called “single-window” concept. IMO’s Alper Keceli led the event, which was attended by representatives from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, UAE and Bahrain (23-25 March).