TNAG-2308-FCO40-3345-Future-of-Hong-Kong-shipping-register-1991 — Page 197

II.

THE REGISTRY

4

(a) Supervision of Registry and Organisational Set-up

The proposal for delegating the powers of a flag state to a statutory authority is worth considering. (LCL)

An organisation under the direction of a Registrar- General of Shipping who would directly be responsible to the Secretary for Economic Services would be appropriate. There should be four divisions in the organisation :-

i) an information and research division,

ii) a safety division to carry out various surveying

activities,

iii) a crew division to look after manning, conditions

of employment, training, examination and certification; and

iv) a marine inspectorate to ensure proper

jurisdication and control of non-HK registered vessels in Hong Kong waters.

This organisation may or may not be a statutory authority but must be seen to be directly responsible to the Government. (PARRY)

The Register and all its state functions should remain under the direct control of the Government. It would be unwise to contract out or to delegate these responsibilities to a commercial organisation. (NUMAST)

A statutory corporation could be organised and wholly owned by Government, on lines of the MTR and KCR, for the purpose of establishing and running the Register, because such a corporation could be a more efficient and effective means of running the Register.

The Secretary for Economic Services, the Director of Marine and possibly other Government officials could be directors of the statutory corporation. Those personnel in the Marine Department now concerned with the existing shipping registry could join the new body. while those involved in port administration could continue to look after the task of administering the port and deal with all local issues related to the movement of ships within Hong Kong.