GUYANA is set to be the host of the 24th annual Caribbean Memorandum of Understanding (CMOU) Port State Control Committee meeting which will be held from June 19-21, 2019, at the Marriott Hotel.

The meeting will come under the leadership of Guyana’s Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) and will see discussions on how the living and working conditions of seafarers in the Caribbean can be improved.

In a release from MARAD on Thursday, the Department stated that the committee meets annually to collectively discuss how to set standards to abide with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) conventions.

The CMOU is also working to harmonise measures of member states with special emphasis placed on training, certification, manning guidelines, inspections, and guidelines for surveyors. “It is expected that attendance to this meeting will include the CARICOM Member States along with Aruba, Bermuda, Cuba, Curacao, the Netherlands, and France, as well as representatives from Intra-Governmental organizations such as the Paris MOU [Memorandum of Understanding], the IMO and the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and a few commercial shipping interest,” the release stated.

According to MARAD, Guyana is a founding member of the CMOU for Port State Control in the Caribbean Region since its formation on February 9, 1996, in Barbados.

Other founding members include Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, the Netherland Antilles, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The membership has since increased to eighteen states with the addition of Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, France, St. Kitts & Nevis, and St. Lucia. In addition, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has joined as an associate member state. Other observer states have indicated their willingness to become members, and it is hoped that the membership of the CMOU will continue to grow over the next few years.