Competitiveness and Communications Minister Censu Galea has led a ministerial delegation to the Posidonia 2006 International Shipping Exhibition, which is being held in Athens.

This exhibition, which is organised on a bi-annual basis, gathers the vast majority of maritime companies and service providers in the shipping industry from all over the world.

During his visit, Mr Galea held talks with the Greek Mercantile Marine Minister Manolis Kefaloyiannis. At the meeting, which focused on bi-lateral maritime issues, the two ministers pledged to further strengthen the cooperation that exists between their respective maritime administrations and to work closer together at both European and international level.

Mr Kefaloyioannis congratulated Malta on becoming a full member of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and on the fact that the Malta Flag has been included within the Paris MOU White List of quality shipping flags.

Mr Galea pointed out that the efforts of the Maltese government have had the desired result of improving the image of the Malta Flag as a flag of confidence for ship owners from all over the world.

He said that this progress had also been underlined by the considerable increase in shipping tonnage registered under the Malta Flag during the first few months of this year.

During his visit to the Posidonia 2006 Exhibition, Mr Galea also visited the Malta stand, which was sponsored and manned by officials from the Malta Maritime Authority.