Panama has been reinstated on the White List of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MOU), according to the organization's recently published annual report.
The Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) said it welcomed the announcement, noting that the White List is widely regarded as one of the foremost international benchmarks for measuring the performance and quality of maritime administrations.
Inclusion on the Paris MOU White List signifies that a country's flag, or ship registry, complies with the highest international standards of maritime safety and regulatory oversight
Panama's return to the White List was, "the result of a sustained strategy to strengthen safety standards, enhance compliance with international conventions, and reinforce oversight of the Panamanian merchant fleet," the PMA said in a statement earlier this week.
The authority said the measures that implemented to ensure Panama's return to the list included: strengthening its preventive inspection program by targeting higher-risk vessels before their arrival at ports operating under the Paris MOU regime; introducing more rigorous mechanisms to identify and monitor vessels with a history of deficiencies; reinforcing the registry's precheck process to ensure that only vessels meeting international standards are admitted to the Panama Ship Registry; adopting enhanced methodologies for flag state inspections; expanding oversight of recognised organisations, shipowners, and operators; and achieving a sustained reduction in maritime incidents while improving the fleet's operational performance through a policy centered on prevention, compliance, and continuous improvement.
