The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) today marked the 36th celebration of World Maritime Day. This year’s theme is: "Sustainable Development: IMO's contribution beyond Rio+20".
In his World Maritime Day message, IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu said that maritime transport was central to sustainable development, as the world's only really reliable, global, cost-effective and energy-efficient mass transportation method for energy, materials, foods and industrial products.
“The maritime
transportation system itself must, therefore, ensure that its development is
also sustainable,” Mr Sekimizu said, adding that this blanket term included not
just the operation of ships, but all the activities that are vital to support
shipping, such as the operation of maritime traffic management systems and
global communication systems, ports and multi-modal connections are all
components of this multi-faceted sector.
“Shipbuilding and classification, ship registry and
administration, ship finance, ship repairing, ship recycling, the education and
training of seafarers, are all part of the system – as, indeed, are search and
rescue services, maritime security agencies, coast guards and maritime law
enforcement agencies and many others, too. They all have a part to play in
defining and achieving a sustainable Maritime Transportation System,” Mr.
Sekimizu said.
“Because the Maritime Transportation System is so essential
to the continued development and future growth of the world economy, IMO will
continue to take the lead in supporting it with the appropriate global
standards and by helping to promote, through technical co-operation, the
necessary national maritime transportation policies and institutional
frameworks for a sustainable Maritime Transportation System,” , the IMO scribe
added.
Similarly, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon also issued a message for World Maritime Day, in which he noted that
this year’s World Maritime Day fell at an important time, as the United Nations
was leading the final stretch of its global campaign to address human suffering
through the Millennium Development Goals while shaping a vision for the
post-2015 period.
“In this effort, we value maritime transport as a
cost-effective and energy-efficient link in the global supply chain. Let us use
this occasion to reaffirm our commitment to optimize the management of maritime
transport to support sustainable development,” Mr. Ban said.
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