Panama to Host Regional Maritime Safety Training Centre

Panama will host a regional center for training in maritime safety, designed with the support of the UN and seeks to instruct for the realization of "risk profiles of the containers that may pose a threat in the field of drug trafficking and fraud", among other crimes.

The center, which could be ready in the first few months of 2018, "is the result of the close collaboration that has kept the International Maritime University of Panama, UMIP, and the Regional Office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for Central America and the Caribbean (UNODC)," said today in Panama.

According to UN data cited by the university, 90 % of world trade is carried out through maritime containers, of which more than 500 million are annually in the supply chain, but less than 2 % are inspected.

"The global dependency of maritime trade, interspersed with the sophisticated methods of concealment used by drug traffickers and counterfeiters, pose a serious threat to the international supply and sustainable development," added the UMIP said in a statement.

The rector of the Maritime University, Aladar Rodriguez, explained that through the courses delivered by the Regional Center for Training in Maritime Safety and Control of Containers (CSMCC), will strengthen the competences in the control of containers.

This will help to better coordination, analysis and exchange of information to facilitate safe trade and the suppression of illicit goods, he said.

The uUMIP recalled that the CSMCC is part of the overall Program of Control Containers, developed jointly by the UNODC and the World Customs Organization (WCO), and that Panama is attached.

The program seeks to assist governments in the creation of sustainable implementation structures in order to reduce the risk of maritime containers are used for the illegal drug trafficking, organized crime, smuggling of goods and other illicit activities, he said the house of studies in Panama.

"This program, which has a global reach, it seeks to strengthen the structures and processes that enable the implementation of sustainable laws for States and the selected ports, in order to minimize the exploitation of maritime containers for illicit drug trafficking and other criminal activities," he added.

source: Telemetro

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