Egypt wins membership in IMO council

CAIRO - 30 December 2019: Egypt won a C-category membership in the Council of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) garnering 132 votes out of 165 on Saturday in the election that took part in London.

IMO is a UN organization whose council comprises 40 members elected by the assembly to serve for two years. According to IMO website, the member states are classified as follows: “Category (a) [includes] 10 States with the largest interest in providing international shipping services...Category (b) [includes] 10 States with the largest interest in international seaborne trade...Category (c) [includes] 20 States not elected under (a) or (b) above, which have special interests in maritime transport or navigation and whose election to the Council will ensure the representation of all major geographic areas of the world.”

In his speech before the 31st session of the IMO General Assembly on Friday, Transportation Minister Kamel el Wazir congratulated countries picked in category (A) and (B). The session is taking place on November 25 - December 4 in the organization’s headquarters in London.

He added that Egypt is keen on executing the IMO activities and objectives, citing the great role played by the country in facilitating the movement of world trade between the East and the West.

The minister noted that Egypt had drawn up a comprehensive strategy to develop ports and increase their competitiveness, as per the applicable international standards.

The strategy is meant to turn Egypt into a regional and international logistic center to serve the intra-trade movement, in addition to providing services to keep pace with the modern global trends in the field of maritime transport and logistics, he said.

He went on to say that Cairo had adopted an integrated maritime policy, with the aim of enhancing the maritime transport system's efficiency, through rejuvenating all harbors and expanding the Egyptian merchant fleet.

In this regard, the minister underlined that the Egyptian government applied an electronic system to manage ports and took serious steps to activate the single-window system for simplifying measures and trade dealings at harbors.