The Moldovan Ministry of Transport has presented draft amendments that provide for reorganization of the "Moldova Water Registry" and the "Giurgiulesti Port Captain's Office" to create the Moldovan Maritime Agency. BSNews reported this, citing InfoMarket.
The agency is expected to engage in authorization, coordination, inspection, control, supervision, and certification of maritime transport and inland waterway infrastructure, transport activity and related areas, as well as personnel working in this area.
The maritime agency will be a specialized technical body that will exercise state control over the ports and Moldovan-flagged vessels – keep records and monitor the technical conditions of marine vehicles, as well as ensure protection of the country’s national water resources from pollution.
The explanatory note to the document notes that Moldova has no administrative institution with supervisory and control functions in the area of maritime transport, registration of ships, and monitoring of the technical conditions of ships similar to model in EU and CIS countries.
In addition, the Moldovan Ministry of Transport is concerned about the inclusion of the country on the black list of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control, which indicates that the current supervisory entity in Moldova – the state institution called Giurgiulesti Port Captain's Office – is inefficient.
Creation of the marine agency will allow better inspection of Moldovan vessels for compliance with national and international requirements and improve the operations of the Giurgiulesti port complex. The Moldovan Maritime Agency will have the status of legal entity with an autonomous budget and operate on the principles of self-management and self-financing. The draft document also presents a list of paid services to be provided by the maritime agency, as well as the tariffs for them.
