Muscat: The Ministry of Transport and Communications on Sunday signed three agreements with international institutions to classify vessels.
These institutions are Lloyd's Register (a British agency), Korean Register of Shipping and France's Bureau Veritas.
A classification society is a non-government global organisation that establishes and maintains technical standards for operating ships and offshore structures.
"We are handing over all technical issues related to the safety of vessels (to these classification societies). Any ship owner who wants to register a vessel under Oman flag has to go through the classification society," said Rashid bin Mohammed Al Kiyumi, director-general (Maritime Affairs) at the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
The classification societies will issue international certificates on maritime safety (safety of both vessels and sailors), protecting the environment from pollution and for avoiding collision, which are all in line with global standards.
Al Kiyumi said that the whole idea is to encourage shipping lines to register their vessels in Oman. As many as 10-12 large vessels have Omani flag, which mostly belongs to Oman Shipping Company and National Ferries Company. "However, if we are talking about small and medium vessels, we have more than 2,000," noted Al Kiyumi.
Global practice
The agreement was signed by Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Futaisi, minister of transport and communications, with the representatives of three classification societies here on Sunday.
"It is an international practice that such classification has to be delegated to proper authorities or entities. This also follows the recommendations issued by International Maritime Organisation (IMO)."
The agreement will enable Oman to implement certain undertakings given to IMO, when it signed a pact with the international agency. The ministry is also looking at signing similar pacts with other international classification societies, including an institution from the US, Germany, Norway, Italy and Japan.
K. J. Pillai, marine manager of Bureau Veritas, said the Sultanate wants to encourage ship owners to have Omani flag. "Bureau Veritas got four vessels under Oman flag."
© Times of Oman 2014
