Open registers come of age

This week marks the 60th anniversary of International Registries Inc. (IRI) the Virginia-based maritime and Corporate Administrator of the Marshall Islands, the gross tonnage of which IRI has just announced has broken the threshold of 40 million.

In a press release IRI said, "In less than five years, the Marshall Islands Registry has more than doubled its fleet size from 18.5 million gross tons and 626 vessels at the end of 2003, to 40 million gross tonnes and 1,736 vessels in May - reflecting an average growth-rate of 18 per cent."

There is indeed now an air of respectability around those open registers that have in recent years been legitimately described as "quality flags" because the implementation of good standards and the careful balance of expedient rules for the ships have been able to overcome the seamier reputation that "flags of convenience" (FOC) previously attracted.

"Quality Flags" include Vanuatu, those under the UKMCA 'umbrella, Jamaica, Barbados, the aforementioned Marshall Islands and several more - whereas at the other end of the spectrum, Bolivia and Mongolia (both land-locked) and countries such as Myanmar and North Korea do little to raise any common denominator of excellence.

The first such arrangement was started by Panama back in the early 20th century, facilitated because of the arrangements regarding ship registration set out in international law whereby jurisdiction applied (and still applies) to the country of registration.

During the 1920s and 1930s the practice of reflagging with Panama gained momentum, particularly by some US shipowners that were trying to evade the Prohibition laws of the US and by the 1940s it had become an attractive option whereby an astute ship operator could reduce his operating costs and avoid government regulations pertaining to the place of actual domicile of his ships.

Poor practice

It then came about in 1948 that the US Government assisted Liberia to create its own open registry that subsequently attracted US-based oil companies and Greek shipowners. Liberia's venture grew and became successful, thus spawning more open registers.

But with this evolution came the downside and the (already mentioned) seamier reputations due to the lack of enforcement of standards by less reputable flags that exploited the fact of their indisputable sover-eignty regarding the laws enforced on their ships.

The rest is common knowledge, and while the majority of ship operators and administrations do adhere to proper standards, there remains a residue of poor practice that still threatens the reputations of the majority, especially where Port State Control is not effectively executed.

Of particular concern are regional factors whereby poor areas will attract substandard tonnage that will inevitably be flagged by substandard Administrations and it is the elimination of these 'pockets' that should be uppermost on the agendas of all of the responsible industry bodies.

It is also towards the substandard elements that the international Transport Federation (ITF) should be perhaps more directional rather than its previously unflinching 'blanket' campaign against FOC, per se, since open registers are undoubtedly here to stay.

The time is now right for a body to be formed that fully represents the interests of the quality open registers that could reinforce the levels of minimum standards, to be a credible body to interact with other confederations such as IACS and to be the mouthpiece of the majority administrations of the growing world tonnage.

Such a body would also further marginalise the sorry elements that still persist and since (unlike the IMO) Flag Administrations are the 'teeth' of all maritime legislation, such a body should not be without influence.

- The writer is a marine consultant based in Dubai.