IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim has spoken about the importance of exploiting the full potential of electronic information and digital resources in ongoing global efforts to improve the safety of maritime navigation and protect the marine environment. Addressing the Preparatory Diplomatic Conference of the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) in Paris, France (18 April) – Mr. Lim praised IALA’s contribution to IMO's work, including the development of e-navigation.
E-Navigation, Mr. Lim said, “is the future. But it has been ‘the future’ for a long time. The challenge now is to turn ‘the future’ into ‘the present’ so that all the benefits and advantages of e-navigation can be fully realized”.
To help achieve this aim, IMO, IALA and other stakeholders are working under the e-navigation Strategy Implementation Plan (SIP), approved at IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee in 2014. The Plan contains tasks to be conducted to address five prioritized e-navigation solutions, including for improved, harmonized and user-friendly bridge design, and means for standardized and automated reporting.
As part of his visit to France, Mr. Lim discussed protection of the marine environment with H.E. Ségolène Royal, French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy. He also spoke about climate change with French Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Jean-Marc Ayrault, and toured the English Channel in a French Navy helicopter – accompanied by H.E. Nicole Taillefer, Permanent Representative of France to IMO.