The International Maritime Organization (IMO) Conference on the Enhancement of Safety of Ships Carrying passengers on non-international voyages, was held in Manila, the Philippines, on 24 April 2015.
The conference successfully raised awareness for this important topic and this resulted in the adoption of the “Manila Statement” that provides guidelines on the safe operation of coastal and inter-island passenger ships not engaged in international voyages.
At the close of the conference, WMU and other institutions were thanked for their contributions to the event.
In particular, the WMU Maritime Risk and Safety (MaRiSa) Research Group contributed to the preparation for the conference.
Professor Jens Schröder-Hinrichs was part of a team that contributed to a fact finding mission in the Philippines to identify areas of improvement in the domestic ferry sector.
The team was sponsored by the Technical Cooperation Division of IMO and also included experts from Strathclyde University and Brookes Bell. Additional contributions by WMU included the work of MaRiSa Group researchers, Raza Mehdi and Hasan Deeb, who assisted in reviewing accident investigation findings for the study report, the results of which were presented at the conference.
Several WMU alumni and graduates from WMU’s sister organization, the International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI), participated in the conference.
In another development, the university has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Philippine Coast Guard.
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