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Bill to give more protection to ship-owners and mortgagees
The Government is introducing the Merchant Shipping (Registration) (Amendment) Bill 1995 to further protect the interests of ship-owners and the mortgagees of ships, a Marine Department spokesman said today (Thursday).
The Bill, to be gazetted tomorrow (Friday), proposes to impose a statutory duty on the Registrar of Ships to give 30 days' notice to the registered mortgagee and also to the ship-owner before closing the registration of the ship if the Registrar receives a notice of unregistrability from a person other than the ship-owner.
"Presently, the Director of Marine has instructed the Registrar to notify the mortgagee before closing the registration of a ship even though there is nothing in the principal ordinance to require the Registrar to do so," the spokesman said.
"As there is no statutory obligation for the Registrar to do so, practitioners and banks are concerned that this may provide opportunities for fraud if a 'demise charterer' submits a notice of unregistrability and transfers the ship's registration to another flag without first clearing any outstanding mortgage or notifying the mortgagee.
The mortgagee is normally a bank to which the ship is mortgaged by its owner to raise funds to purchase the ship.
The Bill will be presented to the Legislative Council on November 22.
End/Thursday, October 26, 1995
Appointment to the Employees Retraining Board announced
The Government today (Thursday) announced that the Governor has appointed Mr Tam Yiu-chung as the Chairman and Mr Andrew Leung the Vice-Chairman of the Employees Retraining Board (ERB). The appointments are for two years with effect from November
1, 1995.