Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) Administrator Jorge Barakat during a visit to Japan, formally asked the Tokyo MoU to accept Panama as an observer member of the Memorandum Asia Pacific, which keeps Panama on the White List.
The Tokyo MoU Secretary Mitsutoyo Okada said he was pleased to receive Panama’s request since the Panama Ship Registry has kept an excellent record in the Tokyo MoU; and that he will proceed with the application.
The Tokyo MOU started operations on 1 April 1994 and is comprised of 19 countries in the Asia and Pacific Ocean. Its main objective is to eliminate sub-standard ships, harmonising the rules of inspection vessels of the Port State Control. With a statistical inspections system, the Tokyo MOU keeps track of ships that meet the highest standards of maritime safety, accounting inspections and detentions over the past three years, classifying them into three groups, namely, black list, gray list and whitelist.
In addition, the AMP Administrator Barakat used his visit to Tokyo to meet with key actors in the Japanese maritime industry, as the Director General of the Maritime Division of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan (MLIT), representatives of the Japanese Shipowners’ Association (JSA), Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-Line), Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) and Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL).
“It was an opportunity to explain to our official hosts and Japanese shipping companies that the AMP administration is committed in the transparency of the services, and high level of technical support,” said Barakat who announced the opening of an SEGUMAR-technical office in Imabari, Japan in May.
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