Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Kamen Kichevopened today an international conference on “Sea piracy in the context of security of maritime transport and its relation to Bulgaria's national security”.

The reason for holding the forum of this magnitude in our country are the more frequent in recent years, pirate attacks on merchant ships. It is known that today the hottest point of this phenomenon is the area of the Gulf of Aden and the coast of Somalia. There 44 Bulgarian sailors were victims, including three captains, said in his speech Kamen Kichev.

According to the International Maritime Bureau so far this year, incidents with attacks of pirates are 289, the captured vessels are 39, 773 people were taken hostage, 27 were wounded, one was killed, added the deputy minister.

Deputy Minister Kamen Kichev presented actions that Bulgaria has taken to counteract this problem. Ministry of Foreign Affairs has created a crisis center involving experts, if necessary, from the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, the Executive Agency "Maritime Administration, and representatives of the ship-owner.

The conference included experts from the maritime industry from Europe, USA, Africa, Middle East and Asia, European Commission representatives and the official state persons from Somalia. Organizers of the event were Executive Agency "Maritime Administration", Bulgarian Association of Shipmasters, Bulgarian Association of Freight Forwarding, Transport and Logistics, Bulgarian Association of Ship Brokers and Agents, Bulgarian Shipowners Association, “Risk Solutions”.

 
The forum, held under the auspices of the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Alexandar Tsvetkov, will continue tomorrow.