>Press Releases Home > Publications and press releases > Press Releases Survey and certification of ships to be streamlined The Government has proposed to amend seven subsidiary regulations under the Merchant Shipping (Safety) Ordinance to harmonise the system of survey and certification of cargo ships in accordance with international conventions. "The harmonisation will not only reduce the overall time a ship is out of service for the conduct of a survey, but also reduce the ship owner's administrative cost," a Government spokesman said today (Thursday). "This will also make the control of safety of ships by the Administration and classification societies more effective," he stressed. Under the proposed amendments, the maximum validity periods for the Cargo Ship Safety Construction Certificates, Cargo Ship Safety Equipment Certificates, Cargo Ship Safety Radio Certificates and International Load Line Certificates will be streamlined and standardised with a validity period of not more than five years. Existing validity periods vary from one to five years. Secondly, the amendments will provide for the issuance of a single combined safety certificate to a cargo ship as an alternative to the three safety certificates in respect of construction, equipment and radio that it received after the completion of an initial survey or a renewal survey. Thirdly, provisions regarding extension of validity periods of certain certificates will be revised. The spokesman pointed out that the proposed changes were required for the Special Administrative Region (SAR) to implement the amendments to two international shipping conventions. These are the 1988 Protocol relating to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 ("SOLAS 1974") and the 1988 Protocol relating to the International Convention on Load Lines, 1966 ("Load Lines 1966") which have been adopted to introduce amendments to the SOLAS 1974 and Load Lines 1966 respectively. Contracting parties to the Protocols agreed to target February 2000 for the provisions to come into effect. "As an Associate Member of the International Maritime Organisation and a major shipping centre, the SAR is obliged to give effect to these amendments to the two Conventions through domestic legislation," the spokesman explained "Hence, we are now amending the Merchant Shipping (Safety) Ordinance (Chapter 369) and the relevant subsidiary legislation," he said. The principal Ordinance was amended on January 12 when the Legislative Council (LegCo) enacted the Merchant Shipping (Safety)(Amendment) Bill 1999. To deal with the required changes to the subsidiary legislation, seven amendment regulations were published in the Gazette today and will be tabled at LegCo for approval. They are : - Merchant Shipping (Safety)(Cargo Ship Construction and Survey)(Ships Built Before 1 September 1984)(Amendment) Regulation 2000; - Merchant Shipping (Safety) (Cargo Ship Construction and Survey) (Ships Built On or After 1 September 1984) (Amendment) Regulation 2000; - Merchant Shipping (Safety) (Cargo Ship Safety Equipment Survey) (Amendment) Regulation 2000; - Merchant Shipping (Safety) (Load Line) (Amendment) Regulation 2000; - Merchant Shipping (Safety) (Load Line) (Length of Ship) (Amendment) Regulation 2000; - Merchant Shipping (Safety) (Passenger Ship Construction and Survey) (Ships Built On or After 1 September 1984) (Amendment) Regulation 2000; and - Merchant Shipping (Safety) (Radio Installations Survey) (Amendment) Regulation 2000. Thursday, 3 February 2000
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