Guyana to host Port State Control Meeting

Guyana is slated to be the host of the 24th Annual Caribbean Memorandum of Understanding (CMOU) Port State Control Committee meeting between June 19 and 21 at the Guyana Marriott Hotel.
This Committee meets annually to discuss collectively, how to set standards to abide with the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) conventions, also to explore ways of improving the living and working conditions of seafarers in the Caribbean.
Another main function of the CMOU is the harmonising of measures of member states, with special emphasis placed on training, certification, manning guidelines, inspections, and guidelines for surveyors.
Meanwhile, Guyana has been a founding member of the CMOU for Port State Control in the Caribbean region since its formation in Barbados, on February 9, 1996. Other founding members include Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, the Netherland Antilles, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The membership has since increased to eighteen states with the addition of Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, France, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia. In addition, St Vincent and the Grenadines has joined as an associate member state. Other observer states have indicated their willingness to become members, and it is hoped that the membership of the CMOU will continue to grow over the next few years.
It is expected that attendance to this meeting will include the Caricom member states, along with Aruba, Bermuda, Cuba, Curacao, the Netherlands, and France, as well as representatives from intra-governmental organisations such as the Paris MOU, the IMO and the United States Coast Guard (USCG), and a few commercial shipping interests.
Incidentally, the CMOU is a regional co-operative body affiliated with the IMO. The event is being held under the auspices of the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD).