On 23 June 2004 Dr Kevin O'Brien, Senior Policy Analyst, RAND Europe and James Coulson, General Manager Dry Freight, GESeaco gave presentations on the theme of ‘Maritime & Port Security - Containers.’ Dr O’Brien scoped the scale, ownership and possible solutions to the problem; Mr Coulson covered what steps the industry are taking to address this and implement the new security regulations.
Key points emerging from the subsequent discussion centred on:
Container tracking, including container contents tracking and the Advanced Container Security Device
Need for worldwide standardisation on issues such as tracking frequencies and methodologies
Where the critical weaknesses lie and where the point of effort needs to be
Resource implications, which are massive, and resource allocation [especially from governments] which is small at present
Balance of government/industry funding for security
Computer and IT security, especially for safeguarding electronic manifests and container movement(s)
Need for current US-centric regulations to be internationalised
- How law enforcement agencies, coastguards (except USCG, which has national lead on this) and navies can be integrated into maritime security mechanisms.
