London, England - Bahamian delegates to the 26^th Regular Session of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Council met in London, England to hold an assembly and participate in Council elections.

On November 23, Minister of the Environment, the Hon. Earl Deveaux led the delegation to the IMO, which is also attended by His Excellency Paul Farquharson, Bahamas High Commissioner to England and Europe.

Minister Deveaux was to address the council on November 24.

He will lead the delegation until the last vote is cast on Friday, November 27, 2009.

“The credentials would show the Minister is the head of the delegation, since he is going to the assembly and his name is on the official document to attend,” said Mrs. Erma Rahming Mackey, Deputy Director of the Bahamas Maritime Authority.

“Since we are vying for re-election for the candidacy internationally, automatically the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would take the lead and they would participate in lobbying.”

Mr. Farquharson is the Permanent Representative to the IMO and is accompanied by Ian Fair, Chairman of the Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA), as well as the London Foreign Affairs office team.

“They would talk to other country delegates to get support for our candidacy to the IMO council, as would be the other member states. They would lobby each other to gain votes.”

The Bahamas is a candidate, already a member out of 40 states, up for re-election, seeking to win the majority of votes to maintain the Category C seat on the council.

Category C, which has 20 seats, deals with states that have interest in international maritime transportation or navigation.

The Bahamas is the third largest ship registry in the world, behind Panama and Liberia respectively.

“At the end of September 30, 2009, we had 1700 ships amounting to 52.8 million gross tons registered with Maritime Authority,” said Mrs. Mackey.

“The Bahamas is already the premier register for cruise passenger ships worldwide and the harbour is being dredged to accommodate the Oasis of the Seas, coming in December carrying 8,500 passengers.”

“The Oasis of the Seas has already been provisionally registered under the Bahamian flag, so that’s already on our register.”

The ship registry contributes significant revenues for the National Economy and makes timely deposits to the Consolidated Fund at the Treasury.

“Since being established in 1995, the main purpose of the Maritime Authority is to administer the ship register, which has been a major revenue earner for us for the last 33 years.”

“The cost of registering a ship is based on the tonnage and we cater to international large shipping, mostly ships that never have to come here.”

“With the register growing, we had to separate the ship register so it could manage its own affairs.”

Bahamas Maritime Authority operates as a quasi government agency that governs its own affairs, such as BEC, BTC, and WSC.

“When you look at Government revenue, everything goes back into the Consolidated fund, and the agency that put in the most money does not necessarily benefit the most from contributing to the Fund.”

“It was set up as an alternative revenue base to Tourism, Financial Services and Customs duties for The Bahamas.”

The Arbitration Bill 2009 establishes International Pro-Arbitration Standards and benefits the BMA through strengthening the rule of law.

“The Arbitration Bill will be an added service for the Bahamas and it’s good for us to be an Arbitration Center, so persons anywhere in the world can come here to settle disputes,” said Mrs. Mackey.

The Bill provides a ready option for members of BMA’s large ship registry to have their disputes settled in The Bahamas, where their ships are registered.

“The Bill was debated before the House of Assembly and was put forward through the Bahamas Maritime Authority,” said Mrs. Mackey.

When the Act comes into force, a convention award will become enforceable in The Bahamas in the same manner, as an award of an arbitrator is enforceable under the Arbitration Act, 2009.

The United Nations Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, or the New York Convention, obligates member nations to recognize and enforce international arbitration rules and foreign arbitral awards.

The Convention, adopted by the United Nations Conference on International Commercial Arbitration on June 10, 1958 is now in the Schedule to the Bill.