The South China Sea has become safer for merchant vessels with no reported hijackings or attacks in the first three months of this year, figures from a Singapore-based anti-piracy agency show.
The Regional Co-operation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia, which comprises 17 states, also said there was not a single hijacking in Asian waters in the first quarter, compared with one last year.
But despite the apparent improvement, Lee Yin Mui, the agency's assistant director of research, said the overall number of incidents in Asia was still higher this year than during the same periods between 2008 and 2010.
She said there were 35 actual and attempted attacks in the first three months of this year, against 37 during the first quarter of last year.
Figures from the group, a government-to-government initiative to combat attacks on ships in the region, showed there were 21 incidents in the first quarter of 2010, 14 in 2009 and 15 in 2008.
Half of the incidents occurred at ports and anchorages, Lee told a group of about 300 maritime executives, police and naval personnel at an agency conference on piracy and sea robbery yesterday.
The figures prompted Yuichi Sonoda, secretary general of the Asian Shipowners' Forum, to say that the situation in Asia had not improved.