The 29th ordinary meeting of the PRIMAR Advisory Committee was held in Split from 8 to 9 November 2022 under the Croatian chairmanship. PRIMAR gathers 16 national hydrographic offices. The meeting was chaired by the HHI director Vinka Kolić and attended by more than 20 representatives of hydrographic offices and PRIMAR members. Director of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Rear Admiral Luigi Sinapi participated in the meeting as observer and IHO representative.

Croatia, being a long-standing full member of PRIMAR (since 25 October 2005), besides using PRIMAR’s tools and services in order to ensure the highest quality of its ENCs (currently 301 cells) and making them available to end users through PRIMAR, actively participates in the work of PRIMAR’s bodies and working groups from the very first day.

The agenda of the meeting focused on strategic, technical, financial, and administrative issues of PRIMAR’s work.

Special focus was given to preparing hydrographic offices for the upcoming digital decade in the maritime sector as regards introduction of the S-100 universal hydrographic data model, which will be the basis for the IMO e-navigation concept.   

ABOUT PRIMAR

PRIMAR is one of the world’s three regional coordinating centres (RENC), operated in accordance with the WEND (Worldwide ENC Database) principles established by the IHO resolution. From an organizational point of view, PRIMAR is an intergovernmental multilateral cooperation of its full members (more about PRIMAR at www.primar.org).

PRIMAR’s principal aim is to ensure a harmonized quality level of ENCs from different producer nations and make them available to end users on ships and other onshore and onboard services on a 24/7 basis. PRIMAR is a non-profit organization, investing the proceeds of the sale of ENCs in the maintenance of existing and development of new services and functionalities. In the context of technological solutions and many services which it provides, PRIMAR has been recognized as a leading RENC.

Croatia once again proved to be an active member, participating in discussions and proposals on all items of an extensive agenda. After Croatia successfully hosted the meeting for the third time, its two-year chairmanship of the PRIMAR Advisory Committee was concluded and handed over to Latvia.