The 29th IMO Assembly was held from Nov.23 to Dec.2, 2015 in London, England. The Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Transport of PRC, He Jianzhong participated in the meeting, leading the Chinese delegation. In the election of the IMO council on Nov.27, 2015, China was elected as the IMO category A council member for the 14th time.
On behalf of Chinese government, He Jianzhong delivered a general speech. He pointed out, as a member of IMO, China has performed its international duty to ensure the safety of navigation and protect the ocean environment, etc. Currently, China is pushing to build the 21st century Maritime Silk Road and accelerate the establishment of the Marine Power Strategy and planning to set up a modern marine system, which is safe, convenient, efficiency, green and internationally competitive till 2020 and realize the health and sustainability of shipping industry.
He Jianzhong also said, China attaches great importance to and takes an active part in the IMO cooperation activities and provides the technical assistance and financial support it can to other developing countries. He suggested that IMO should strengthen the technical cooperation of international shipping, provide more support to developing countries and combine the technical cooperation and implementation audition to improve the implementation ability of developing countries. He Jianzhong emphasized, the international society should seek a solution of greenhouse gas reduction in shipping industry in the frame of IMO. The developed countries should pay attention to the advanced technology application as well as the technical assistance and transfer to the developing countries to help with improving the ability of green development.
He Jianzhong appealed to IMO member states to establish the fate community consciousness. On the basic of pushing the existing achievements, the IMO member states should work together to face the challenges and promote the global shipping industry to pull through and make effort for the target of realizing a safe, green and efficient shipping industry.
He Jianzhong also visited the Baltic Exchange, Inmarsat, Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, etc. in England.