The 19th meeting of the Advisory Committee of the International Mobile Satellite Organisation (IMSO) was held last 4-5 July in London.
Top on the agenda of this meeting, chaired by Nigeria, were issues concerning the system for long-range identification and tracking of ships (LRIT). The participants were informed that the contributions received to finance the launch of this new system were paltry, which may affect IMSO's ability to carry out its duties as the LRIT co-ordinator. With this in mind, the Director should continue to seek alternative means of financing for the next four years, by contacting other organisations and industry, and should again write to the Member States urging them to make donations.
Regarding the request for proposals on the creation, operation and maintenance of International Data Exchange (IDE) and International Data Centres (IDCs), sent on 14 May 2007, the Director reported that the Marshall Islands had submitted a proposal in the name of a Consortium, which will be evaluated according to the Operating Standards; the result of that evaluation will be sent to MSC 83.
As for the LRIT budget, the Committee recalled the importance of its being entirely independent of the budget for the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) and agreed, per the Director's recommendation, with the indicative budget for 2007 at nearly 466,000 euros (314,108 pounds sterling). With respect to the organisation's overall budget, the Director reported that after negotiations with Inmarsat, the latter pledged to pay for the totality of the budget approved for 2007. Should IMSO be unable to gather the capital needed to launch the LRIT system, Inmarsat also agreed that said amount could be taken from the budget for GMDSS and that the budget would be duly balanced the following year.
Also noteworthy was the discussion on the proposals submitted by the USA to modify the Convention and to draw up a Resolution. While recognising that it is not up to this Committee to debate the document presented, the participants expressed their opinion on the proposal. The Committee members generally deemed the changes to be pertinent, given that it is necessary to detail and include some items in the IMSO Convention. Nevertheless, the need for this not to compromise LRIT implementation was also underscored. The Committee members were therefore asked to take part in an informal correspondence group co-ordinated by the USA, with a view to improving the proposed amendments and the Resolution on administrative issues, to be considered at the next IMSO Assembly.
The next Advisory Committee meeting has been scheduled for the week beginning on 10 December 2007.
