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Bahrain will be hosting some of the leading figures of the maritime industry in October as it focuses on safety issues at a prestigious international gathering 100 years after the Titanic tragedy, writes Stan Szecowka.
The General Organisation of Sea Ports (GOP) is gearing up to stage the World Maritime Day (WMD) Parallel Event.
Based on the 2012 theme ‘IMO: One hundred years after the Titanic’ preparations are underway to organise maritime themed-activities to highlight and showcase developments made in maritime safety over the past 100 years.
Hassan Ali Al Majed, director general of the GOP, said: “A significant portion of our responsibility as Bahrain’s maritime regulator lies in ensuring the safety of everyone who uses Bahrain’s waterways in any capacity.
“This year’s theme of safety at sea is therefore of particular importance to us, and we are glad to be able to bring our colleagues and peers from around the world to explore both the legacy and the future of safety at sea.”
Bahrain will be the eighth country in the world to host the event and it will take place on October 17-18.
RMS Titanic, a British passenger liner, sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from the English port of Southampton to New York City, US. The sinking caused the deaths of 1,502 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
The event in Bahrain will include a one-day seminar addressing safety issues with the second session focusing on the implementation of safety standards. The second day will include a number of site visits to key maritime locations within the kingdom, including the state-of-the-art Khalifa Bin Salman Port, as well as the Arab Ship Building and Repair Yard, amongst others.
High level representatives from the international maritime community expected to attend include the secretary general of the IMO, Koji Sekimizu, chairman of the IMO Maritime Safety Committee, Christian Breinholt, secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping, Commander Peter Hinchliffe, chairman of the International Association of Classification Societies, Tom Boardley, managing director of the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (INTERTANKO) Katharina Stanzel and assistant secretary-general and director of the Maritime Safety Division – IMO, Andrew Winbow.
World Maritime Day is an annual global initiative launched by the IMO and celebrated every year in London during the last week of September. In 2005, the IMO Council decided to hold the Parallel Day Event in one of the IMO member states aimed at raising the profile of shipping around the world.
The kingdom pioneered the idea of the Bahrain Maritime Festival in 2010, a week-long activity-filled event based on the IMO theme for the year.
