China was successfully re-elected as the Council Member at the General Assembly of the 19th IALA Conference held on Tuesday 29 May 2018 in Incheon, Republic of Korea, the Council for the period 2018-2022. Xu Ruqing, the Director-General of Maritime Safety Administration of the People’s Republic of China was elected as IALA Councillor.
China came top in the first round vote after two rounds of fierce competition. The Council for the period 2018-2022 was elected and is now composed of: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, The Kingdom of Morocco, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Turkey, The United Kingdom and The United States of America.
IALA is a non profit, international technical association. Established in 1957, it gathers together marine aids to navigation authorities, manufacturers, consultants, and, scientific and training institutes from all parts of the world and offers them the opportunity to exchange and compare their experiences and achievements.
IALA encourages its members to work together in a common effort to harmonise aids to navigation worldwide and to ensure that the movements of vessels are safe, expeditious and cost effective while protecting the environment.
Taking into account the needs of mariners, developments in technology and the requirements and constraints of aids to navigation authorities, a number of technical committees have been established bringing together experts from around the world.
The work of the committees is aimed at developing common best practice standards through publication of IALA Recommendations and Guidelines.
This work ensures that mariners have aids to navigation which will meet their needs both now and in the future. Thus IALA contributes to a reduction of marine accidents, increased safety of life and property at sea, as well as the protection of the marine environment.
IALA also encourages cooperation between nations to assist developing nations in establishing aids to navigation networks in accordance with the degree of risk for the waterway concerned.