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Exclusive Interview-Koji Sekimizu
www.seanews.com.tr
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the course of this meeting, with a mosaic
representation of the 500-year old Piri Reis
Map. When you consider that it was drawn
up as far back as 1513, that feat in itself tells
us a great deal about Turkey’s contribution
to the history of cartography, navigation and,
indeed, the safety ethos that pervades all of
our endeavours in the maritime field.
In this context, I visited Turkey last year
and was shown the VTS Centre in Istanbul,
where I saw a well-organized traffic infor-
mation and management system for ships,
which has been in service since the end of
2003. I was impressed by this modern sys-
tem and considered that Istanbul was, and
is, ideally placed to be the standard-bearer
for a worldwide ‘Accident Zero’ campaign.
IALA is now making further progress with
this campaign.
So, the safety of navigation and of lives
at sea is a paramount factor for IMO and
it is my view that, today, Turkish ships are
performing very well, by complying with
safety and environmental requirements: for
example, in 2009, Turkey moved from the
grey to the white list of the Paris MoU.
This is significant progress and I, therefore,
praise the effort of the Turkish shipping
industry and appreciate the hard work of
everybody involved.
Turkey has been a member of the IMO
Council since 1999, which is surely an
expression of confidence by the interna-
tional maritime community in the country’s
interest in, and determination to, develop
its maritime sector. It also recognizes that
Turkey contributes to IMO’s work at all
levels and I particularly appreciate its efforts
in combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden
since 2009, and its consistent support for our
technical co-operation activities, which are
aimed at providing support to developing
countries so that we have global, uniform
and effective implementation and enforce-
ment of IMO standards.
I am confident that the very construc-
tive support and contribution from Turkey
to the activities of IMO will continue to
be strengthened because of the growing
importance and excellent performance of
the Turkish shipping industry, supported by
the Turkish Government under the strong
leadership of the Minister of Transport,
Maritime Affairs and Communications, and
also because of the country’s permanent
interest in our global objectives.
SeaNews: How is the progress on “Zero
Accident Campaign”? How this issue
will be carried forward by IMO? How it
will be reflected onto IMO work?
Koji Sekimizu:
In 2012, I invited the
International Association of Marine Aids
to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities
(IALA) and vessel traffic services (VTS)
operators to undertake an initiative in which
ports, harbours, straits and sea areas with
VTS would count, and publicise, the number
of consecutive accident-free days, a world-
wide “Accident Zero” campaign.
Since then, the initiative has been under
consideration by relevant IMO bodies and
the IALA Council has further considered
the proposal.
In January 2013, I established a Panel of
Experts (involving IALA, the International
Hydrographic Organization (IHO), IMO,
the International Association of Ports
‘
The reporting
of near-miss
occurrences should
be encouraged, in
order to promote a
safety culture.
’
‘
Turkish ships are
performing very
well, by complying
with safety and
environmental
requirements
’