IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos met the Honourable Sheik Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, in London last week, as a follow-up to his visit to Bangladesh earlier this month. The Secretary-General sought to enlist support and action for the early ratification of the Hong Kong International Convention on the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009 and the implementation and enforcement of the technical standards contained therein; and offered technical co-operation assistance for capacity building in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, along with India, China, Pakistan and Turkey, is among the world’s leading ship recycling countries, but there are long-standing concerns over the safety and environmental aspects of the industry – concerns which the Hong Kong Convention seeks to address.