Next week (22 - 23 May 2018) the French Hydrographic Office (SHOM), based in Brest, will host a two-day meeting of three PRIMAR RENC (Regional ENC Coordinating Centre) working groups. The meeting will be attended by representatives of PRIMAR, Norway, Sweden, Finland and France. Croatia will be represented by Vinka Kolić, director, and Željko Bradarić, assistant director for international relations.
The agenda of PRIMAR permanent working groups for strategic (PSWG), financial (PFWG) and marketing (PMFG) issues will again include several topical subjects. Most important strategic issue will address challenges that PRIMAR and its members meet in connection with transition to the new generation of ENC according to S-101 standard. This issue is considered to be almost equally demanding in organisational, technical-technological and financial terms as the issue of transition from paper versions of navigational charts to digital ones (ENC). The transition issue is additionally complicated by the fact that it will be necessary to ensure maintenance and availability of both ENC generations (Dual Fuel) for several years.
Major financial issue will deal with evaluation of the current financial model (FM 6.0) in use since the beginning of 2017. As a result of the initiative put forward by HHI representatives at previous PRIMAR Advisory Committee meetings (PAC 23 and 24), and last year’s working group meeting in Split, the proposal for an improved financial model to be used as of 1 January 2019 will be discussed under this agenda item.
Marketing issues will deal with the promotion of basic PRIMAR services (ENC validation and distribution), as well as additional services such as ENC Inspector, ENC Pilot, WMS for ENC, ENC Update Tracker, ENC Improver, GeoView, and S-102.
In a separate meeting, Norway and Croatia representatives will discuss the proposal for joint hydrographic survey project to be financed from a Norway donation. Through participation in this event, HHI has established itself once again as a proactive member of one of three regional ENC coordinating centres of worldwide recognition.