"Indispensable Shipping" Theme Launched

The critical link between shipping and global society is the main focus for this year’s World Maritime Day theme: "Shipping: indispensable to the world". 

The theme for 2016 was launched by IMO Secretary-General Lim as he opened the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Construction.

Today, around 90 percent of world trade is carried by the international shipping industry, and there are over 50,000 merchant ships trading internationally. The world fleet is registered in over 150 nations and manned by more than a million seafarers of virtually every nationality.

“This year's theme was chosen to focus on the critical link between shipping and global society and to raise awareness of the relevance of the role of IMO as the global regulatory body for international shipping,” said Lim. “The importance of shipping to support and sustain today's global society gives IMO's work a significance that reaches far beyond the industry itself.

“This is a message that needs, and deserves, a wider audience. Almost everyone in the world today relies on shipping to some extent – but very few are aware of it. This year's World Maritime Day theme gives the entire shipping community an opportunity to promote shipping, loudly and proudly, to a global audience, and I hope that you will all seize that opportunity during the course of this year.”

This year, World Maritime Day will be celebrated at IMO Headquarters on Thursday September 29, and the annual parallel event will be held in Turkey in November.

Lim’s speech is available here.