by Linda Straker
- Meeting formalised structure to address sustainable maritime transport in Caribbean Sea
- Sub‑Committee established to formalise rules of procedure, intercessional, for future meetings
- Hybrid meeting attended by 40 representatives of maritime administration
Grenada was among countries participating in the Regional Meeting for Directors and Heads of Maritime Administrations (formerly known as the Workshop of Senior Maritime Administrators), jointly organised by the International Maritime Organisation and the Maritime Authority of Suriname.
Held in Paramaribo, Suriname from 28–29 July 2022, the meeting was considered an important transition to a more formalised structure to address matters affecting sustainable maritime transport in the Caribbean Sea. This included transport of cargoes and passengers by sea, facilitation of maritime transport, legal and legislation matters, marine technology, maritime education and training, maritime safety, protection of the marine environment, navigation and rescue and any other relevant matters.
“The meeting agreed to formalise the role of the Chair, which will be the host country, and a Vice Chair, to be instituted on a rotational basis amongst the participating States and Territories. A Sub‑Committee was established to formalise rules of procedure, intercessional, for future meetings,” said a press release published on the IMO website.
“Other important decisions of the meeting included the provision of additional support for the development of the regional casualty incident/investigation database, progressing the GloLitter Programme in the region, increased collaboration among Caribbean maritime training institutions and increased support for the gender-based data collection by the regional Women in Maritime Association, WiMAC,” the release said.
IMO was requested to reconvene a High-Level Symposium of Ministers responsible for maritime transport to focus on legislative issues and climate adaptability matters.
Conducted in the hybrid format, the meeting was attended by 40 representatives of the maritime administrations from the following countries: Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, the Netherlands, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Republic of Suriname and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; and the territories/regions of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Eustatius and Saba), and the United Kingdom (Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands.
There was also participation from the Caribbean Maritime University; Caribbean Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (CMoU); the Commonwealth Secretariat; International Telecommunications Union; Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre (Caribbean); Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS); Regional Activity Centre Regional Marine Pollution Emergency, Information and Training Centre – Caribe (RAC/REMPEITC-Caribe); United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Cartagena Convention Secretariat; The University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT); US NOAA National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS); Women in Maritime Association Caribbean (WiMAC); and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
Again a waste of vital tax payers money. What did Grenada benefit from these pointless meetings. As a new government we must take into consideration what is of importance to us, before sending these people on a “sight seeing adventure”. They brought back NOTHING to enhance or forward Grenada.
Who is paying for all these pointless meetings??
And who is paying all these pointless people to attend these pointless meetings????
Poor reporting. Who was Grenada represented by?
And who are you to judge whether these meetings are critical to Grenada’s economic development!
I believe Maritime agreements and vital for fishing, maritime territorial boundaries etc.