Eight countries have met in Manado, the capital of Indonesia's North Sulawesi province, to discus cooperation in enhancing shipping safety, security and marine environmental protection on the Malacca Strait. Entitled "Pre-Project Coordination Committee Meeting," the gathering on Tuesday discussed steps to be taken following the Singapore meeting of September 4-6, 2007, which had set a cooperation mechanism between littoral states and countries using the Malacca Strait and stakeholders, Antara news agency reported on Wednesday.
The eight countries participating in the tripartite technical experts group on shipping safety on the Malacca Strait are Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore as littoral countries, and Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and the United States as the countries using the waterway. Opened by sea transportation director general of the Indonesian Transportation Ministry H Harijogi, the meeting was sponsored by three international maritime organizations, namely, Nippon Foundation, Malacca Strait Council and Nippon Maritime Center. Harijogi said earlier that three meetings had been held for which six projects were offered to the relevant countries using the Malacca Strait and stakeholders. The six projects proposed by Malaysia include salvage of sunken vessels from the sea bed, protection of Malacca and Singapore straits from dangerous and hazardous contamination, the use of automatic identification system for B class against non-convention vessels using the waterway, arrangement of waves, currents and air measurement system. In the meantime, Indonesia proposed the change and maintenance of shipping traffic along the Malacca and Singapore straits and change of support shipping facilities damaged by the tsunami.