Next week (23 - 24 May 2017) Hydrographic Institute of the Republic of Croatia (HHI) will host a two-day meeting of three working groups of the PRIMAR RENC (Regional ENC Coordinating Centre). The meeting will be attended by representatives of the PRIMAR, Norway, Sweden, Finland and France. Croatia will be represented by Dr. Nenad Leder, HHI director, Capt. Željko Bradarić, assistant director for international cooperation, and Mr. Dejan Lovrinčević, Geodesy Specialist.

Agenda of the PRIMAR permanent working groups for strategic (PSWG), financial (PFWG) and marketing (PMFG) issues will include some topical subjects.

Most important strategic issue will deal with the challenges that PRIMAR with its members faces in a 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 a 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.

Financial issues will deal with evaluation of the new financial model applicable since the beginning of 2017, and in view of the resulting indicators will also address the PRIMAR draft budget for 2018. Last year already, at the PRIMAR Advisory Committee (PAC 23) meeting in Riga, the HHI representatives proposed and undertook to prepare assessment of the impact of new financial model. At the PFWG meeting, HHI representatives will present the results of comparative analysis of three financial models, on the basis of ENC sales data for the first five months of 2017, and propose an improvement to PRIMAR FM 6.0 that is currently applicable.

Marketing issues will deal with promotion of basic PRIMAR services (ENC validation and distribution) as well as additional ones such as ENC Inspector, ENC Pilot, WMS for ENC, ENC Update Tracker, ENC Improver, and GeoView.

On this occasion a trilateral meeting will be held between representatives of Norway, Montenegro and Croatia, who will discuss the proposal for joint hydrographic survey project to be financed from a Norway donation

By organising this meeting, HHI has proved once again to be a proactive member of one of three regional ENC coordinating centres of worldwide recognition.