05 March 2010

First-of-its-kind workshop held for member States from the Asian and African regions concludes today
Twenty-four maritime officials from 13 countries attended the workshop held from 1-5 March

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Maritime Organization (IMO),organised a workshop for IMO member States from the Asian and African regions for the implementation of the Voluntary IMO Member State Audit Scheme (VIMSAS). This workshop seeks to help member States prepare for VIMSAS, unlike current workshops which focused on the training of auditors.

Organised under the Singapore-IMO MOU on Third Country Training Programme, this workshop serves as a learning and sharing platform to equip IMO member States from the Asian and African regions with knowledge on VIMSAS audit preparation, process and follow-up action required. In addition to class discussions with MPA officers, the officials visited MPA's Port Operations Control Centre and Hydrographic Department and an oil spill response company to observe first hand the implementation of IMO rules and regulations.

VIMSAS was launched in 2005 by IMO as a framework to raise the quality of shipping. It provides member States with an opportunity to review and address gaps in their implementation and enforcement for international shipping. Singapore successfully underwent the audit in 2008 and has participated in the audit of four other maritime administrations.

MPA Chief Executive, Mr Lam Yi Young said, "Singapore has been an active supporter of VIMSAS, and Singapore was a member of the pilot audit project which facilitated the implementation of the IMO audit scheme. We hope that by organising this workshop to share our experience on VIMSAS, more countries will indicate their preparedness to be audited."

As a participant of the workshop, Mrs Kiran Shamloll, Senior Maritime Officer assisting the Mauritian Secretary for Shipping Development said, "Mauritius has already volunteered to be audited under the VIMSAS programme. The workshop gave us an insight of what has to be done in order to implement the IMO Conventions and also gave us the opportunity to realise the large amount of work that is being done in Singapore in implementing the IMO Conventions and in turn realise our shortcomings."

Mrs Tatjana Krilic, Member State Audit Officer in the IMO Office of the Secretary-General, commended Singapore for organising and co-hosting the regional workshop. She expressed that the guidance and experience of the lecturers, exchange of knowledge among participants and sharing of Singapore's practices were keys to the success of the regional workshop.

End of Release.

About the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA)
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) was established on 2 February 1996, with the mission to develop Singapore as a premier global hub port and international maritime centre (IMC), and to advance and safeguard Singapore's strategic maritime interests. MPA is the driving force behind Singapore's port and maritime development, taking on the roles of Port Authority, Port Regulator, Port Planner, IMC Champion, and National Maritime Representative.MPA partners the industry and other agencies to enhance safety, security and environmental protection in our port waters, facilitate port operations and growth, grow the cluster of maritime ancillary services, and promote maritime R&D and manpower development.

Singapore-IMO MOU on Third Country Training Programme
The MOU is a commitment by Singapore to partner the IMO in conducting training workshops that enhance the capacity of IMO member States in the implementation of IMO rules and instruments governing international shipping. A total of 1,085 participants from 42 countries have attended 42 courses since the establishment of the MOU.

Voluntary IMO Member State Audit Scheme (VIMSAS)
The Voluntary IMO Member State Audit Scheme is intended to provide an audited Member State with a comprehensive and objective assessment of how effectively it administers and implements those mandatory IMO instruments which are covered by the Scheme.

It is expected that the audit scheme will bring about many benefits, such as identifying where capacity-building activities (for example, the provision of technical assistance by IMO to Member States) would have the greatest effect. Targeting of appropriate action to improve performance would be greatly improved. The Member States themselves would receive valuable feedback, intended to assist them in improving their own capacity to put the applicable instruments into practice; and generic lessons learnt from audits could be provided to all Member States so that the benefits could be widely shared.

The twenty-fourth Assembly in November-December 2005 adopted resolutions A.974(24) Framework and Procedures for the Voluntary IMO Member State Audit Scheme and A.973(24) Code for the implementation of mandatory IMO instruments which provides the audit standard.

The adoption of the framework and procedures for the scheme heralded a new era for IMO, in which the Organization has at its disposal a tool to achieve harmonized and consistent global implementation of IMO standards, which is key to realizing the IMO objectives of safe, secure and efficient shipping on clean oceans.

The scheme addresses issues such as conformance in enacting appropriate legislation for the IMO instruments to which a Member State is a Party; the administration and enforcement of the applicable laws and regulations by the Member State; the delegation of authority to recognized organizations (ROs); the related control and monitoring mechanism of the survey and certification processes by the Member States.

Singapore supported the IMO Assembly Resolution on the Institutionalisation and Further Development of the VIMSAS in November 2009.