During this week, Malta is joining the international maritime community to celebrate the World Maritime Day. Malta commemorates this occasion on the same day as IMO (International Maritime Organisation), on Thursday 24th September 2015.
The theme for World Maritime Day in 2015 as approved by the Council of the Organisation is Maritime Education and Training. The text of a message from the Secretary General of IMO, Mr Koji Sekimizu is enclosed.
This year’s theme was chosen in order to focus on maritime education and training, two areas that are essential for the long-term sustainability of the sector, both at sea and on-shore.
Minister Joe Mizzi remarked that Malta acknowledges the important role IMO has in ensuring that effective standards of training remain the bedrock of a safe and secure shipping industry, which needs to preserve the quality, practical skills and competence of qualified human resources. Maritime Malta pays tribute to IMO for its success in building maritime partnerships that are the basis of ensuring globally applicable standards essential for serving on boat ships, skills and competence of seafarers, and indeed, the human element ashore maintained through effective maritime education and training.
Malta has been a member of the IMO since 1966 having acceded in June of that year to the UN convention establishing this organisation. As an international maritime centre and in particular as one of the largest shipping registers in the world, Malta is an active participant at IMO. Malta is also proud of its direct association with two very important international centres run by IMO and located in Malta, namely the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) and the IMO International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI). Both institutions have a distinct objective to ensure that maritime administrators have a well developed and suitably trained human resource.
The Minister for Transport and Infrastructure reiterated Malta’s uninterrupted support for the work of IMO and the importance Government continues to attach to the further development and upgrading of the marine sector in a sustainable manner that would really meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.