1 The Maritime Safety Committee (MSC), at its
seventy-ninth session (1 to 10 December 2004), received reports by
the Secretary-General pursuant to regulation
I/7, paragraph 2 of the International Convention on Standards
of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW Convention), 1978, as amended. The reports
were in respect of those STCW Parties, whose information had not been
fully evaluated previously and in time for them to be considered by
MSC 78. A list of the STCW Parties which had communicated information
that demonstrated that they were giving full and complete effect to
the relevant provisions of the Convention at that session of the Committee,
together with those which had previously been confirmed by MSC 78
(12 to 21 May 2004), MSC 77 (30 May to 8 June 2003), MSC 76 (2 to
13 December 2002), MSC 75 (15 to 24 May 2002), the Committee's first
extraordinary session (27 and 28 November 2001), MSC 74 (30 May to
8 June 2001) and MSC 73 (27 November to 6 December 2000), was promulgated
by means of MSC/Circ.1121 dated 20
May 2004.
2 MSC 79 noted that, in preparing the reports
required by STCW regulation I/7,
paragraph 2, the Secretary-General had solicited and taken into account
the views of competent persons selected from the list established
pursuant to paragraph 5 of section A-I/7 of the STCW Code and circulated
as MSC/Circ.797, as revised from time to time.
3 In accordance with STCW regulation I/7, paragraph 3, MSC 79 confirmed one further STCW
Party, additional to those listed in MSC/Circ.1121, which had communicated information demonstrating that it
was giving full and complete effect to the relevant provisions of
the STCW Convention, as amended. The
list at annex contains those STCW
Parties confirmed by the Committee at its seventy-third, seventy-fourth,
first extraordinary, seventy-fifth, seventy-sixth, seventy-seventh,
seventy-eighth and seventy-ninth sessions.
The Committee noted
that, as the process of communicating and evaluating information is
continuing, further Parties may be added to the list at annex at subsequent meetings.
4 The Committee draws the attention of maritime
administrations, shipowners, ship operators and managers, ship masters
and other parties concerned to the following:
-
.1 not all of the STCW Parties listed at annex provide seafarer training, and
some of those Parties listed may only provide a limited range of training;
and
-
.2 the fact that a Party is listed in the annex
does not relieve those concerned of their obligations under the STCW Convention.
5 As Parties are entitled to accept, in principle,
certificates issued by or on behalf of Parties identified in the list
at annex, and a position on that list is one of the necessary measures
used by many Administrations for the issue of endorsements in compliance
with STCW regulation I/10, the
attention of port State control officers is drawn to the fact that
this circular was issued on 10 December 2004 and, therefore, some
seafarers may, for practical reasons, not hold certificates with such
endorsements.