SEABED ASSEMBLY NOTES SECRETARY-GENERAL’S REPORT, APPROVES CREDENTIALS, APPOINTS AUDITOR

SEABED ASSEMBLY NOTES SECRETARY-GENERAL’S REPORT,

APPROVES CREDENTIALS, APPOINTS AUDITOR

(Received from the International Seabed Authority.)

KINGSTON, 10 July -- The Assembly of the International Seabed Authority took note this afternoon of the annual report of the Secretary-General, approved the report of the Credentials Committee and reappointed the firm KPMG Peat Marwick to audit the Authority’s accounts.

The Assembly has only to hear the report by its President, Peter D. Donigi of Papua New Guinea, and fix the date of next year’s session to complete its work for the year.  These matters will be considered on Thursday morning, 12 July.

Discussion on the Secretary-General’s report started this morning, with speakers commenting on the pending supplementary agreement between the Authority and Jamaica as host country, the financial obligations of members and information from technical workshops.  The report (document ISBA/7/A/2) covers the work of the Authority for the period from July 2000 to June 2001.

Commenting on the aspect of the report concerning relations with the host country, Fiji, Portugal and New Zealand strongly urged the secretariat to work at ironing out differences with the Government of Jamaica on the outstanding issues in the supplemental agreement, which concerns the use and occupation of the Authority’s offices in Kingston.  They also expressed concern at the difficulty being experienced by the secretariat in filling staff vacancies at the professional level in certain key areas.

The Assembly approved without discussion or objection the report of its Credentials Committee (document ISBA/7/A/4), which had accepted the credentials of representatives to the session.  Norma Taylor Roberts (Jamaica) introduced the report.  According to that document and an update given to the Assembly by Michael W. Lodge, Chief of the Office of Legal Affairs, the following 58 member States have submitted credentials or otherwise informed the Authority of their attendance as of midday today:

Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, European Community, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kuwait, Malta, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea,

Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, Yemen, Yugoslavia and Zambia.

The reappointment for one year of KPMG Peat Marwick as auditor of the Authority’s accounts was taken on the recommendation of the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Domenico Da Empoli (Italy), following his consultations with the eight committee members present and correspondence with other members.

Report of Secretary-General

In this afternoon’s discussion of the Secretary-General’s report, several delegations, including those of Fiji, Germany, India, New Zealand, Portugal and Yemen, commented on the importance of an increased flow of technical and scientific information and commended the secretariat on its role in organizing workshops, encouraging and collecting scientific research, and disseminating such information through its Web site and other means.

Germany said that future environmental workshops could benefit from earlier dissemination of the agenda to all members.  It called for closer contact with the Authority’s technical experts -- a view supported by India and Portugal, which suggested that workshops might be arranged to run concurrently with the regular sessions of the Authority to allow more members to participate. 

Sudan emphasized the value of training programmes, which it described as a “tangible asset for developing countries”.  Yemen endorsed this position.

A number of delegations, including Argentina, speaking on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean group; Belgium on behalf of the European Union, and New Zealand, took up the call for all States, including former provisional members, to fulfill their financial obligations to the Authority.

India, the only registered pioneer investor which has not yet signed a seabed exploration contract with the Authority, announced its readiness to complete the procedure and said it would be in touch with the secretariat in the near future to fix dates for the signing.

Secretary-General Nandan, responding to points raised in today’s discussion, said he would take up with the Jamaican Government concerns expressed by Saudi Arabia and Sudan about problems in obtaining visas for some representatives to the current session.  He noted that four Saudi representatives had been unable to obtain visas in time to attend.

Regarding China’s suggestion that material on the Authority’s Web site (www.isa.org.jm) should be available in six languages, he said steps would be taken to expand from the current three languages (English, French and Spanish) as soon as feasible, though he noted that the site was being maintained by only one staff member.  As suggested by India, the Web site would be improved to include links to other information sources.  To speed access to the site, the possibility of establishing a mirror site (a computer in another country that duplicates the content on the main Web server) was being investigated.

Mr. Nandan responded to a question by Argentina, on behalf of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, as to why a legal compendium issued by the Authority included a statement by a non-party to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.  He said the statement had been included because it was a “historic” acknowledgement by the United States that problems in the Convention concerning the seabed had been resolved, making the Convention universal.

To points raised by Germany and others on the need to inform States in a timelier manner about the subjects of upcoming workshops, he admitted that there had been a delay in establishing precise topics for last month’s workshop on environmental data standardization, and he pledged to provide information more promptly in future.  He thought scheduling problems would result if workshops were held as part of the Authority’s annual sessions instead of a week before the sessions as currently arranged.  Regarding a suggestion by Pakistan to appoint an editorial committee of members of the Legal and Technical Commission to produce published workshop proceedings, he said the Authority would consider how best to speed the task.

To a request by Chile that the Authority assemble more information on polymetallic sulphides and cobalt-rich crusts, he said the secretariat hoped to circulate such information before the next session.

On training, he noted that the pioneer investors had completed their training programmes for personnel from developing countries, so that no training programmes were currently under way.  He thought the matter should be kept under review and dealt with at a future date.

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