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Minister of Transport H.E. Jassim Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti today attended and addressed the plenary session of the 33rd Assembly of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which is meeting in London.

Minister Al-Sulaiti opened his speech by voicing Qatar’s thanks to the IMO for its efforts to ensure maritime navigation’s safety and security and to protect the marine environment.

He went on highlighting Qatar’s achievements in the maritime transportation industry in terms of updating the relevant laws, legislations, and plans in line with universal conventions and standards concerned with safety of life at seas, protecting the marine environment, and maritime security.

The Minister highlighted Qatar’s major steps on the path of qualifying its maritime manpower in accordance with the IMO’s objectives. He also highlighted the great priority Qatar gives to women’s empowerment in the industry in line with the IMO’s resolutions that aim at creating barrier-free work environments for women in maritime.

On protecting the environment, the Minister said that protecting the marine environment is a primary goal in all our plans. For that, he said, Qatar has put together a national plan of action for managing and preserving marine resources, thereby supporting the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), and is planning to establish marine reserves in an area of 30 miles of Qatari waters over the next ten years.

Additionally, he said, Hamad Port having been internationally recognized as one of the biggest green ports in the world shows a high compliance by Qatar and its organizations to domestic and universal environmental standards and the adoption of latest innovative practices based on environmental sustainability and clean energy, adding that Qatar is currently working on supplying the vessels with very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) in such an essential step towards protecting the environment in the region and the world.

He said that Qatar’s investments into infrastructure projects of the transportation sector and its support logistics services have contributed to delivering an integrated transit system that helps achieve the goals of the Qatar National Vision 2030. He said the Qatari maritime transportation industry has seen remarkable progress at all levels, particularly commercial, industrial and tourist ports, shipbuilding, and dry docks.

Regarding trade exchange and raising the competitiveness in terms of managing and operating Qatari ports, Minister Al-Sulaiti said that multiple agreements were signed with several countries and ports, particularly in energy industry, to export gas aboard the world’s largest LNG tankers, which, in the near future, will be the world’s largest gas shipping fleet that the country established to play as the main shipping factor on the LNG supply chain worldwide.

The Minister went on saying Qatar has been taking the approach of overseas investments into commercial ports, aiming to foster its competitiveness in terms of managing and operating commercial ports to achieve sustainable development for the national economy though long-term investments and common interests and, hereunto, the Qatari model of investing in ports presented the principle of permanent partnership.

Concluding his remarks, Minister Al-Sulaiti stressed the State of Qatar will continue its commitment to cooperating with the IMO to achieve its objectives and principles, and that Qatar will continue working tirelessly to be at the level of faith put in it by the Member States that will support our candidature for reelection to the membership of the IMO Council in Category C.