Norwegian government proposes to revamp shipping register

Norwegian government proposes to revamp shipping register    The government of Norway has submitted recommendations to Borge Brende, minister of trade and industry, and to the Storting, Norway's parliament, to attract more business to the Norwegian International Ship Register (NIS).
   A combined public-and-private sector working group, at the government's request, proposed drastically altering the ship register. Among the recommendations was a removal of trading area restrictions that are part of the ship register's by-laws. 'It is a paradox that ships registered with the NIS are the only vessels banned from carrying cargo between Norwegian ports, from operating on the Norwegian continental shelf, and from participating in passenger traffic to foreign destinations,' the working group noted.
   Another proposal was to relax criteria requiring shipping company headquarters to be based in Norway. The working group also urged the simplifying of approval procedures of certificates for foreign crew on NIS ships.
   'If NIS is to succeed in competition with other registers, then the shipping industry's conditions should be simplified, balanced and harmonized with what other countries are offering,' said Jorgen Vatne, director of the working group.
   Representatives from Det Norske Veritas, a classification society based in Norway; the ship register; the country's Maritime Directorate; seamen's organizations, the Norwegian Shipowners Association, and the admiralty law firm of Thommessen Krefting Greve Lund comprised the working group.