Lim Ki-tack Will Take Office As IMO Chief Next Month
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Monday, January 4, 2016
Lim Ki-Tack, who has been elected as the next secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in a ballot, will start his four-year term in the beginning of next year, the South Korean government said, reports Yonhap.
Lim will replace Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu to become the 9th IMO secretary-general starting Jan. 1. With six candidates in the running it took five rounds of voting before Lim was able to collect more than half the 40 votes from IMO Council members.
His inauguration was approved unanimously by the IMO’s general assembly last month, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
“I will go through thorough organization analysis and assessment to make the IMO become a more transparent and efficient international agency,” Lim was quoted as saying.
He has served in multiple positions in and outside the IMO, including as chairman of the subcommittee on Implementation of IMO Instruments (formerly the FSI) from 2002-2005.
Lim is currently president of Busan Port Authority. He served as the Republic of Korea’s Deputy Permanent Representative to IMO from 2006 to 2009 and was Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Flag State Implementation (FSI) from 2002 to 2004.
The role of the IMO in international diplomacy will require a firm hand at the rudder as it meets the ongoing challenges of both regional rules from entities such as the European Union and the United States, and the challenge to its credibility with regards climate change rules by the UN Framework Convention on Climate change.