31st World Maritime Day marked

Page 30, September 24/2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

THE Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, has asked the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) to submit a draft legal instruments and sanctions regime for ratification to enable the government to introduce sanity into the shipping industry.
The move, the Vice-President said, would also afford the authority the opportunity to effectively regulate and co-ordinate all stakeholders in the maritime industry and eliminate what he described as the “unnecessary functional overlaps and conflicting objectives in public sector agency operations”.
Alhaji Mahama made the call in a speech read on his behalf by Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, the Chief Advisor to the President, at the celebration of the 31st World Maritime Day under the auspices of the GMA in Accra.
As part of activities lined up by the GMA to commemorate the day, there will be a three-day workshop, beginning today, on the theme, “Building partnership for the prevention and protection of marine pollution and effective oil spill response”.
The Vice-President explained that the introduction of the legal instruments and sanctions regime was necessary “because shipping lines are beginning to abuse the system by introducing unjustifiable charges, such as container administrative fees and several others which pose an unnecessary burden on our importers and exporters”.
“This trend, I must say, is adversely affecting government’s efforts aimed at making Ghana an investment destination in the sub-region,” he added.
The Vice-President used the occasion to justify why the GMA was set up, saying, “The government, like many other developing countries, depends almost exclusively on international shipping for the carriage of over 90 per cent of the country’s international trade.”
He said the trend of globalisation and privatisation was becoming pervasive and irreversible, thereby imposing structural and policy changes and challenges which needed to be analysed and effectively managed by a specialised professional body such as the GMA to provide inputs for incorporation in the maritime sub-sector of the national strategic development framework.
In spite of its challenges, Alhaji Mahama commended the management of the GMA for halting the perennial trend in frequent accidents and considerable loss of human lives and property on the Volta Lake, with collaboration from the Ghana Navy, since January 2007.
The Vice-President also mentioned the organisation of the national workshop on safety and navigation of non-convention crafts and inland waterway vessels to further improve safety of transportation on the country’s inland waters.
Alhaji Mahama pledged the government’s commitment to support the authority’s ongoing efforts to install and operate the Vessel Monitoring Information Systems (VMIS) which would put it in a better stead to effectively manage the country’s maritime domain.
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes, who chaired the function, appealed to the GMA to expedite action on eliminating unnecessary functional overlaps of agencies within the industry which most often increased the cost of doing business at the ports.
He urged the management of the GMA and other stakeholders in the industry to remain focused on their objectives of creating a vibrant maritime industry to support the government’s development efforts.
The Minister of Harbours and Railways, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, said the GMA, in collaboration with the IMO, had organised a national training workshop for its marine surveyors to enable it to fulfil effectively Ghana’s flag and port state responsibilities of inspecting and surveying Ghanaian and foreign ships to ensure their sea worthiness and compliance with international standards.
“The authority has collaborated effectively with the Regional Maritime University for seafarers to be trained on the basis of IMO courses and in relevant international conventions such as the IMO international convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping for Seafarers as amended in 1985,” he added.
The Director-General of the GMA, Mr Peter Issaka Azumah, pledged the commitment of the authority to work expeditiously on the relevant instruments and draft legislation for consideration by Parliament at its next sitting.