IMO secretary general set for second four-year term

The International Maritime Organization Council meeting next week is expected to endorse IMO secretary general for another four-year term at the helm. With no other candidates so far, a proposal to extend Mr Lim's tenure beginning in 2020 will likely pass without opposition..

News ID: 80287

Date: 16 November 2018 - 12:15

The IMO Council will discuss next week granting Kitack Lim a second term as secretary general beginning in 2020

INTERNATIONAL Maritime Organization secretary general Kitack Lim will likely receive the organisation’s official blessing next week to carry on for a second four-year term starting in 2020, Lloyd’s List understands.

The IMO secretariat has proposed to the IMO Council, the 40-member state governing body convening in London next week, to endorse Mr Lim for a second term, all but ensuring four more years for the secretary general.

His first term ends on December 31, 2019 and he is eligible to serve for one more.

There are no other candidates that have been put forward to the Council ahead of the meeting, Lloyd’s List understands.

Mr Lim’s tenure is under consideration over a year before his first term ends to allow for any other nominations and a potential election during the next Council meeting, in the summer of 2019.

Next week’s Council meeting will decide whether there will be an election in the summer of 2019 and will subsequently call for nominations of potential secretary generals until March 2019.

But given the lack of candidates at the moment, elections appear to be highly unlikely scenarios and Mr Lim should be officially endorsed next week.

IMO delegates have privately noted that attempting to unseat a secretary general is a politically contentious move that would probably receive insufficient backing and undermine that member state’s standing among other countries.

The IMO Assembly, consisting of all member states and meeting following the summer of 2019 Council session, would be asked to confirm the Council’s decisions. Assembly has traditionally endorsed the Council’s choice.

Discussion over Mr Lim’s tenure next week will coincide with consequential debate on what reforms the IMO will undertake over the next few years to strengthen its governance and levels of transparency.

Public access to IMO meetings, media coverage, the role of organisations in the IMO, as well as the Council’s power in policy making are all under consideration and a cause of disagreement among member states.