IMO Council Bid Timely for Jamaica’s Maritime Posture – Joe Issa

Issa, who is founder of the Cool Group of over 50 companies, was commenting in an interview, on a move by Prime Minister Andrew Holness to seek election on the IMO Council as a Category C member when the 172-member assembly meets at its biennial meeting in London in November this year.

Jamaica, who is no stranger to the IMO Council, sat on it from 2008- 2015, but was not re-elected for the 2015-2016 term, which comes to an end later this year.

Issa, who once owned the Rockfort Pier in St. Andrew (as part of assets taken over from Shell) where ships regularly call in with oil and gas products, argues that Jamaica, which has some of the best enabling factors for economical and safe shipping, is well poised to contribute to the further development of world shipping.

Category C membership is reserved for countries which have special interests in maritime transport or navigation and whose election to the Council will ensure the representation of all major geographic areas of the world, the IMO website informs.
“We don’t build ships in Jamaica but we sure have what it takes to facilitate them in our waters, however big they are. If shippers want deep-water harbours for their mega vessels, we can accommodate them with one of the top seven in the world.

“And if they want a large and efficient transshipment port within the geographic space of the Panama Canal, we can offer that too,” says Issa, adding, “And that’s not all…we also have top training facilities for seafarers, search and rescue capability and some capacity to contain oil spills.”

In underscoring the strategic importance to Jamaica of a seat on the Council, which is the executive organ of the IMO, Issa says “it offers the opportunity to influence the direction of world shipping for the foreseeable future while promoting Jamaica’s relevance in the industry, especially as a popular cruise ship destination.”

Of the 40-strong Council, 10 States with the largest interest in providing international shipping services are Category a members, 10 countries with the largest interest in international seaborne trade are in Category B, and the remaining 20 with special interests in maritime transport or navigation are Category C members.

For the 2016-2017 biennium, Category A members are China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, Panama, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and United States.

Category B members for this term are Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

And Category C members are Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey.

Most United Nations members who are not IMO members are landlocked countries.
Recent initiatives of the IMO included further amendments to the 1974 SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) Convention, which upgraded fire protection standards on passenger ships. The SOLAS Convention is considered, above all others, as the most important for ship safety worldwide.

There were also amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, which establishes the basic requirements, as well as amendments to the Convention on the Prevention of Maritime Pollution, which required tankers to have double hulls.

As a council member, Jamaica will also be able to tackle international climate change, as the IMO is said to have participated in the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris seeking to establish itself as the “appropriate international body to address greenhouse gas emissions from ships engaged in international trade,” according to Wikipedia.

Issa is known to have been very vocal in local and international publications, calling for the Paris Conference to ensure a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emission by the leading industrial nations.

With headquarters on London’s famous River Thames, the IMO is also responsible for publishing the International Code of Signals for use between merchant and naval vessels.

It has harmonized information available to seafarers and shore-side traffic services called e-Navigation, a strategy developed by the IMO to increase safety of navigation in commercial shipping, “through better organization of data on ships and on shore, and better data exchange and communication between ships and the ship and shore”.

The e-Navigation initiative is said to have been has been entrusted to Norway and the Norwegian Coastal Administration to coordinate the development of an implementation plan.

The IMO has also served as “a key partner and enabler of US international and interagency efforts to establish Maritime Domain Awareness,” which has been described as “the effective understanding of anything associated with the maritime domain that could impact the security, safety, economy, or environment.”

The maritime domain is defined as “all areas and things of, on, under, relating to, adjacent to, or bordering on a sea, ocean, or other navigable waterway, including all maritime-related activities, infrastructure, people, cargo, and vessels and other conveyances.”

The IMO, which is headquartered in London, England, has a Secretariat consisting some 300 international civil servants headed by a Secretary-General, who is currently South Korean Kitack Lim. He was elected at the 114th session of the IMO Council in June 2015 and endorsed by the IMO’s Assembly at its 29thsession five months later.

Lim’s tenure is for four years starting January1, 2016, as he becomes the eighth elected Secretary-General of the IMO. In his capacity, Lim is expected to oversee Jamaica’s bid for Category C membership in the Council.