The session was held on February 15-19, 2021. RS delegated Sergey Vasilevskiy, principal specialist of the Department for Management Systems and Products Certification.

The agenda of the session spreads on effectiveness of the independent evaluation of the STCW Convention by maritime administrations according to Regulation I/7. The Sub-Committee addressed the issues on increasing the value of information communicated by administrations, the completeness of reports submitted and the efficiency of data review arranged by competent persons designated by IMO Secretary-General.

Being authorized by the Maritime Administration of the Russian Federation (RF MA) to perform independent evaluations in compliance with the STCW Convention since 2014, RS has evaluated about a hundred of organizations including all the maritime educational institutions, training centers and seaport administrations of Russia. Upon the results of each independent evaluation RS submitted report to RF Ministry of Transport to be transferred to IMO Secretariat.

The considerable experience of independent evaluation enables RS to take an active part in IMO discussions on improvement of STCW audits, contribute suggestions on uniform reporting and competent persons training development. Currently, the representative of RS is a member of the Correspondence Group established by HTW7, and the main task for this group within the next intersessional period is to draft the roadmap on the unification of the parties’ approach for the STCW independent evaluation and development of its effectiveness.