The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Conducts Bilateral Meeting with The Bahamas to Discuss Further Collaboration in the IMO

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s delegation to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), led by Permanent Representative H.E. Eng. Kamal Al Junaidi, met with members of the delegation of The Bahamas, led by the Hon. JoBeth Coleby-Davis, Minister of Energy and Transport, and H.E. Paul Rolle, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the IMO, on the 11th of March 2025. The meeting took place at the IMO headquarters in London during the 49th Session of the Facilitation Committee.

The meeting explored opportunities for bilateral cooperation to facilitate positive change in the maritime industry. The discussions covered a variety of topics, including seafarer education, digital transformation, and global trade facilitation. Both parties underlined their commitment to finding innovative and sustainable solutions to build a more resilient maritime sector.

H.E. Eng. Al Junaidi shared some of the outcomes of the Kingdom’s partnerships with the IMO including IMOCARES, GloLitter, GloFouling, and GloNoise, while introducing the recently launched NextWave project, which will provide training opportunities for cadets from SIDS and LDCs onboard Bahri ships. The delegation of The Bahamas shared its own initiatives in maritime education, notably the Bahamas Maritime Authority’s provision of STCW training to seafarers.

Both countries agreed that developing the next generation of seafarers had to go hand-in-hand with impactful initiatives to increase the participation of women in the sector. To this end, Saudi Arabia noted its women-only maritime training program, which received over 600 applicants, indicating a growing interest in the sector.

Also in attendance was MAWANI’s Vice President of Shared Services and Digital Transformation, Dr Majed Al Malik, who exchanged insights with his Bahamas counterparts on port digitization strategies, and Saudi Arabia’s recent success in implementing its Maritime Single Window. The Kingdom aims to position itself as a global logistics hub as part of its Vision 2030 goals, and these efforts to streamline clearance processes and increase trade efficiency are a cornerstone of this ambition. The two delegations agreed to explore future collaboration on key digital infrastructure and data management processes, as well as on the implementation of effective Long-Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) within the Bahamas archipelago in an effort to improve maritime domain awareness.

The Hon. JoBeth Coleby-Davis and H.E. Eng. Kamal Al Junaidi exchanged commemorative gifts, and Saudi Arabia extended a warm invitation to The Bahamas to participate in the upcoming Sustainable Maritime Industry Conference (SMIC), set to take place in September of this year.