bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

The Marine Department has denied the Hong Kong shipping register has been branded a flag of convenience (foc) but says the International Transport Workers' Federation does target Hong Kong ships if they are black-listed.

 'This does not make the Hong Kong register a flag of convenience,' said Director of Marine Tsui Shung-yiu.

 The Hong Kong register is recognised internationally for its high safety standards.

 The federation categorises a shipping register as an foc if it challenges a ship's safety standards or if a shipowner employs non-domiciled seamen.

 The foc issue was raised by a shipping executive at a technical seminar organised by the Marine Department and the China Classification Society. He urged the department to work with the federation to remove the threat.

 'If the threat of being branded as a foc is not removed, it might deter other shipowners from registering their ships on the Hong Kong register,' he said.

 Mr Tsui said the department was already working with Hong Kong unions to resolve such problems.

 The federation did target companies or ships on the register if a particular one was black-listed by the federation.

 Mr Tsui said that, in the Hong Kong context, Chinese seamen were not accepted as domiciled seamen.

 Assistant marine director Raymond Tang said that because Hong Kong had adopted the International Maritime Organisation's standards, ships on the Hong Kong shipping register were not sub-standard.

 The federation was studying 50 flag states and Hong Kong would position itself to see that it was not classified as an foc.

 Earlier, during his seminar address, Mr Tang said the department introduced a flag-state quality control system on April 1 to tackle any shortcomings and to improve the quality of Hong Kong ships.

 The control, which would be backed by a computerised information system that monitored the performance of classification societies, ship managers and vessels, replaced the audit inspection and the five-yearly survey system, he said.

 The focus would shift towards more effective monitoring of the quality of surveys carried out by the class societies and ship safety management by ship managers.

 Seven classification societies in Hong Kong have been nominated by the department to make surveys.

 Mr Tang said that while the audit inspection and the five-yearly survey had enabled the department to monitor and maintain the standard of Hong Kong ships, they were found to be expensive for shipowners and inefficient.

 'Flying out our surveyors overseas to conduct the audit inspection and the five-yearly survey is not only costly to shipowners but may also cause delays or inconvenience to the ship,' he said.

 The audit inspection was carried out on all ships, good and bad, duplicating surveys by classification societies and penalising conscientious shipowners who maintained their vessels properly.

 Mr Tang said the audit inspection and the five-yearly inspection could not in practice achieve the objective of auditing the quality of surveys carried out by classification societies.

 Ships that fell below the convention standard could not be detected until the five-yearly inspection was due or when they were apprehended by port state control authorities.



'Flag of convenience' fear dismissed