China’s Belt and Road Initiatives by Wei Liu

Author:Wei Liu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore

The Maritime Silk Road Strategy Prompts Coastal Nations to Establish Safety Standards for Shipping

The Maritime Silk Road is to be connected by ports and put into use via shipping so universal standards and regulated management model would be an inescapable issue for countries along the route. Precisely, maritime transport requires coastal nations to follow systems that are in accordance with international industry standards, such as ship registration/inspection/visa, route administration, crew training and protection, marine rescue and salvage, international shipping insurance and taxation, marine conservation, etc. Only by complying to rules can human weakness be overcome thus reduce risk of human conduct, so our course can last and keep developing. For example, in marine conservation, it is necessary for Asia to learn from the EU and establish, as soon as possible, a prevention and punishment system against pollution from ships. Otherwise, the people along the route might lose their beautiful homes before they have a chance to enjoy the fruit of cooperation.

For the same ship-caused pollution of marine environment, results can be distinctively different in Asia and the EU. It is an enlightening phenomenon to be noticed. On June 13th 2001, a Malaysia-bound Indonesian tanker carrying 600 tons of toxic industrial phenol and 16 tons of chisel toppled near Malaysia’s south coast, right across Singapore, causing death of all fish and seashells in eight adjacent farms. This incident was merely settled with civil compensation, whereas in 2002 in wake of the Prestige oil spill in Spain, the EU responded with measures that afterwards largely contributed to the improvement of European marine environment.

At the time, oil and fuel leaked from the Prestige spilled over a range of 300 km along the Costa Galicia, causing death of a great number of marine lives and unemployment of 120,000 fishermen. The Spanish government spent 42 million euros on the cleaning campaign, yet lives of hundreds of thousands of seabirds and otters were lost for good. This incident prompted the EU to launch a series of laws and regulations for the protection of marine environment, including: forbidding single-hull tankers to transport heavy oil; forbidding vessels flying flags of convenience to enter EU waters; Using a universal protocol when investigating maritime incidents; inflicting criminal punishment on parties at fault in pollution incidents. Regulations and orders listed above provide more than just a revelation but, more importantly, the establishment of rules for investigation on maritime affairs as well as interference of criminal and judicial authorities in pollution incidents by negligence.

2002 oil spill of Bahamian tanker prestige near Spanish coast

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.