The Seychelles Maritime Safety Administration (SMSA) will be getting help with its process to enable the country to be on the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) white list.

The Colombo International Nautical Engineering College (Cinec) will be helping the SMSA with this process.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed last week at the Maritime Training Centre by the two parties.

Signing the agreement were President of Cinec Captain Ajith Peiris and SMSA’s director general Captain Joachim Valmont.

Present at the ceremony were Minister for Home Affairs and Transport Joel Morgan, Minister for Education Macsuzy Mondon, representatives of Cinec and several high ranking officials.

Capt Valmont said the signing of the accord represents a big step forward for the Seychelles government.

He added that by not being on the IMO white list means that our fleet of five tankers are targeted, meaning that these vessels undergo the ports state control process as they are considered to be substandard.

Port State Control is the inspection of foreign ships in national ports to verify that the condition of the ship and its equipment comply with the requirements of international regulations and that the ship is manned and operated in compliance with these rules.

“Cinec will now help SMSA in producing its documents to submit to IMO so that Seychelles will be accepted on the white list,” he said.

“This will take about six months to be initiated and to prepare the documents and an additional six months to be accepted.”

Capt Valmont said the process is a major task and the SMSA will not be able to do it without the support of Cinec.

Cinec is also helping SMSA to complete the review of the Merchant Shipping Act which is another important document which will help Seychelles join the IMO white list.

Forrás: www.nation.sc