Putrajaya, Malaysia hosted the 26th meeting of the Port State Control Committee. It was held between 5th and 8th October. The Tokyo MOU was concluded in December 1993 and came into operation in April 1994. It has in all 19 member countries. In the recent meeting, both Panama and Peru had applied for membership. Both these countries were accepted as members as they duly met with all membership criteria; thus increasing the membership count to 21.
The meeting was chaired by Mr. Abdul Samad Bin Shaik Osman, Principal Assistant Director, Maritime Industry Control Division, Marine Department Malaysia. The meeting was officially opened by Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai, Minister of Transport of Malaysia.
The TWG meeting discussed matters relating to PSC technical procedures and guidelines, Concentrated Inspection Campaigns; information system and information exchange, evaluation of work done by intersession technical groups and technical co-operation activities.
The Committee reviewed and revised the Strategic Plan, Strategic Directions and the list of planned actions for the five-year period from 2016 to 2020. The Committee considered and approved the amendments to the guidelines for the detention review panel, guidelines for the responsibility assessment of RO and guidelines for PSC officers on Maritime Labour Convention. The Committee approved the new version of the Port State Control Manual, which will be published internally at the beginning of December 2015.
The 3rd Joint Ministerial Conference of the Paris and Tokyo Memoranda on Port State Control has been planned to be held in Canada April 2017.
The Committee elected Mr. Carlos Fanta, Head, Port State Control Division, Directorate of Maritime Safety, Security and Operation, Directorate General of the Maritime Territory and Merchant Marine (DIRECTEMAR) of Chile, as the new Chairman and Mr. Alex Schultz-Altmann, Manager, Ship Inspection and Registration, Ship Safety Division, Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), as the new Vice Chairman of the Committee for the next three meetings.
The twenty-seventh meeting of the Port State Control Committee will be held in Australia in October 2016.
Source: Tokyo MOU
