Regular annual meeting of three working groups of the PRIMAR (Regional ENC Coordinating Centre (RENC)), was held 11 – 12 May. The VTC meeting was attended by representatives of the PRIMAR, Estonia, Finland, France, Latvia, Norway, Poland, and Sweden. Croatia was represented by Vinka Kolić, director, and Željko Bradarić, assistant director for international relations.

Agenda of the PRIMAR permanent working groups for strategic, financial, and marketing issues (PSWG, PFWG, PMFG), in addition to regular themes, included some specific current topics. One of the most interesting issues involved new obligations of hydrographic offices and RENCs to provide specifically defined maritime services in a harmonised and safe way according to the IMO Strategy Implementation Plan for the concept of e-navigation. Document for drafting a project proposal to support PRIMAR and its members in meeting these new requirements was presented for that purpose.

As regards the transition to a new generation of ENC according to the S-101 IHO standard and the development of other products and services under the new framework standard for hydrographic data (IHO S-100), the state of play of implementation of some important projects approved at the last year’s meeting of the PRIMAR Advisory Committee was presented.

Financial issues included presentation of the final statement for 2020, as well as sales trends and operating costs for the first quarter of 2021. This topic also covered presentation of the administration model for reuse of S-57 data in third parties’ derived products.

Another interesting agenda item was the presentation a study carried out to obtain opinion on the PRIMAR strategic guidelines in the short term.

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.