Malaysia briefed the meeting on courses offered by Malaysia’s Maritime Transport Training Institute (MATRAIN) as a Regional Centre for Training Advanced Maritime Technology.The list includes basic ship handling, an ISPS auditor course, basic instruction/operations for MMD candidate instructors, Maritime Labour Convention course, radar navigation and radar plotting, and port development doctrine. Malaysia also informed that MATRAIN conducts a one year course that leads to a Post-Graduate Diploma in Marine Operations and Administration.
The meeting also discussed possible activities towards implementing the ASEAN Regional Strategic Action Plan to minimise the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens in ship ballast water and sediments adopted by the 39th Senior Transport Officials’ Meeting (STOM). As the only ASEAN member state that has ratified the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 (BWM Convention), Malaysia is working with the International Maritime Organisation/Norwegian Agency for Development (IMO/Norad) Project towards more effective implementation of the convention through the drafting of legislation. The Federation of ASEAN Shipowners’ Association (FASA) reiterated its concerns on the high costs expected in the implementation of the BWM Convention and requested for a strategy to exempt ships operating exclusively within ASEAN.
FASA also raised the issue of the rising number of reported piracy and armed robbery cases in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore and South China Sea and its concern that such a situation may result in ASEAN waters being categorised as a high-risk area. This would adversely impact shipping particularly for vessels sailing through the area. The Meeting noted FASA’s calls for cooperation towards adopting prompt and effective measures to address the threat of maritime crime in ASEAN.
MIMA Fellow from the Centre for Ocean Law and Policy Sharina Shaukat and Senior Researcher Mok Lay Yong attended the meeting as part of the Malaysian delegation.