Last week’s IMO Facilitation Committee (FAL 50) proved successful for IAPH, which sent a large delegation to the event (pictured below).

Member States agreed to adopt the proposed amendments to the FAL Convention to include a mandatory cyber security standard to safeguard Maritime Single Windows (MSW). This was submitted by IAPH with the support of Frans Van Zoelen, emeritus chair of the IAPH Legal Committee, alongside several co-sponsors, including, Brazil, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE, CLIA, ICS, BIMCO, IHMA, FONASBA and IPCSA.

IAPH also took this opportunity to introduce the IAPH Cyber Resilience Guidelines on Emerging Technologies, which were welcomed by the Committee.

Alongside cybersecurity, IAPH co-sponsored several submissions relating to Port Call Optimization (PCO) and digitalization, specifically, a proposal by the Netherlands on the need to develop specific guidelines on the exchange of port nautical information and a supporting information paper introducing the new IAPH and IHMA Port Call Optimization Guide.

The latter was presented by Ben van Scherpenzeel (IHMA) and Ingrid Boqué (Port of Barcelona) on 23 March (see above).

Finally, the Committee also progressed with development of the IMO Digitalization Strategy, with a draft presented to this session.

With agreement on the text, the Committee agreed to re-establish the Correspondence Group which has been tasked to develop an action plan for its implementation and report back to the next session (FAL 51).

IAPH is following its development closely to identify potential opportunities to contribute to the work.
Source: IAPH