Panama Introduces Digital Data System
The Panama Martime Authority has launched a first of its kind digital inspection data collecting system, recently described in a March 2014 Fairplay article.
Panama Ship Registry, which falls under the Panama Maritime Authority's department of merchant marine, maintains its position as the world's leading flag. As of end-June 2013 it had 8,261 vessels (over 500gt) totalling 230.1m tonnes registered, representing 21.9% of the world's merchant fleet, according to Lloyd's Register Statistics.
Quality has been on the increase, as well as quantity. The age of the fleet that has been lowered to 16 years, down from an average of 19 years in 2009.
Alfonso Castillero, head of the Registry and Panama Maritime Authority's director of merchant marine, says the flag has benefited from 'a series of measures to improve quality, a successive number of incentives to shipowners and numerous visits to our customers.' It has also 'strengthened its inspections and quality standards to comply with international conventions on maritime safety,' he adds. The quality drive began with Panama's accession to the White List.
A series of innovations were implemented in 2003, beginning with the creation, in July, of a set of further economic incentives for registration of newbuilds additional to those already issued in 2009. Aimed at giving some respite to ship owners because of the global economic situation, they will terminate at end 2014, says Castillero.
The Panama Maritime Authority has also introduced a customised system to facilitate the work of more than 300 Panama nautical surveyors worldwide that helps centralising the inspection results in real time. The $3.7m-system is a mobile device with wireless network connnection that will optimise the Annual Safety Inspections (ASI) of Panamanian vessels around the world. Panama is the first country to use this modern mobile device. 'This new tool has proved very valuable for the safety, security and control of the fleet while keeping the registry updated and aware of possible problems,' explains Castillero.