The 31st ordinary annual meeting of the PRIMAR Advisory Committee was held in Helsinki from 11 to 15 November 2024. The Republic of Croatia, as permanent member state of PRIMAR, participated in the meeting, represented by Director of the Hydrographic Institute Vinka Kolić Bubić. With more than 20 representatives of hydrographic offices and PRIMAR, the meeting was also attended by Director of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO).
Member states of PRIMAR set up an S-100 Capacity Building Fund, intended to finance PRIMAR member states’ projects relating to implementation and production of S-100 based digital products, involving not only hydrographic institutes but also other stakeholders from the maritime sector.
Other agenda topics covered strategic, technical, financial, and administrative issues of PRIMAR’s work. Special focus was given to presentations of projects (both ongoing and in preparation) aimed at preparing hydrographic offices for the upcoming digital decade in the maritime sector regarding introduction of the S-100 universal hydrographic data model, which will be the basis for the IMO e-navigation concept.
Croatia, as a long-standing full member of PRIMAR, uses PRIMAR tools and services in order to ensure the highest quality of its ENCs (currently 316 cells), making them available to end users.
About PRIMAR
PRIMAR is one of the world’s two regional ENC 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.
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.