IMO consultation due to close soon

There’s less than a month for those involved in the maritime arena and public to take part in the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) current consultation about administrative burdens that could come about through complying with its instruments. The period of consultation has been active for half a year and comes to an end October 31st. Responses have already been coming in, and by analysing these the body has found that most have come from ship’s management, a category which includes crewmembers. In terms of the topics of responses, most cover safety requirements and SOLAS – the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. Some 62 per cent of responses relate to this area, compared to 20 per cent relating to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) and the environment. Stakeholders in the maritime world have been encouraged to give their views prior to the consultation ending this month by Koji Sekimizu, the secretary-general of the IMO. “I would urge as many people as possible to take part in this consultation, as only with a strong set of data can we meaningfully identify where changes may be necessary,” he said. The idea is that information will be gathered from many different sorts of stakeholder. Afterwards, suggestions about ways of bringing down the burden of administration will be developed. IMO says that it is aware that certain requirements its instruments outline could now be disproportionate or unnecessary and wants to make these have less of an impact. Doing this will create benefit in itself and support the reallocation of resources towards security, environmental and safety improvements, it says. Anyone can take part in the consultation, but it is especially targeted at maritime stakeholders like companies, suppliers of equipment, shippers and manufacturers. When it is over, a steering group is set to analyse the results and put forward recommendations on action to the IMO council. Cast UK is one of the country’s leading professional level logistics recruitment consultancies. Fill your next vacancy with us today!