Throughout the past week, seafarer certification processes, of the General Directorate of Seafarers (DGGM), of the Maritime Authority of Panama (AMP), were subject to an audit by the Inspectorate Maritime of the Kingdom of Belgium, BMI, for its acronym in English, with a view to signing a bilateral agreement between both nations, allowing the mutual recognition of their certificates of competence (CoC).

Last Monday, the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Administrator of the AMP, gave a warm welcome to the team of BMI auditors, headed by its Director, Bart Heylbroeck, a country that months ago gave its approval for Panama to and to be recognized by European Commission, through an audit by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA, for its acronym in English).

After a week of inspections, and verifications, the first phase of this process was completed, through a meeting in which the auditors gave their general impressions to an audience formed by the Administrator of the AMP, Jorge Barakat Pitty, and the management team of AMP.

The members of the Maritime Inspectorate of Belgium gave an exhaustive review and visited the facilities of maritime training centers, to check in site, the training and training plans of Panamanian seafarers.

Bart Heylbroeck, at the closing meeting, said that the experience of auditing the AMP was enriching, and highlighted the organizational structure and the human resource trained and motivated in its functions. It should be noted that the report of the audit will be sent shortly to the European Commission, in compliance with the procedures of Directive 2012/35 / EU amending Directive 2008/106 / EC, to continue the process of recognition of the certificates of competence (CoC) of the Republic of Panama, as a third country