Maritime authorities from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao jointly
issued the latest-version of electronic charts for one-year's free
use for jet boats shuttling between the three sides.
The China Communication News reported Monday that the Guangdong
Provincial Maritime Bureau, the Marine Department of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and the Maritime
Administration of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR)
produced the 14 pieces of electronic chart display and information
system (ECDIS), which are available for free use for more than 100
jet boats carrying passengers in the sea area near the Pearl River
mouth.
Such service will charge after the first year's free use of the
ECDIS, the authorities said, without saying how much it will
cost.
Hong Sixiong, an official from Guangdong, said the ECDIS, a
specific form of computer-based navigation information system that
integrates a variety of information that is displayed and
interpreted to mariners, will greatly improve navigation safety and
operational efficiency, the newspaper reported. The area now sees
nearly 300 departures and arrivals of jet boats every day. The
annual passenger departures and arrivals are about 20 million.
The newly-developed ECDIS provides seamless coverage of the sea
area of the Pearl River mouth and corrects a few errors of separate
electronic charts previously prepared by the three authorities,
Hong said.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) lately issued a
regulation, requiring jet boats, manufactured after July 1, 2008,
must be equipped with ECDIS receivers, and all jet boats in
operation must use the ECDIS facilities after July 1, 2010.
(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2007)