Moin Ahmed is one of two candidates nominated for the position of secretary general with a seafaring background.(The other candidate is from Türkiye).

After 10 years at sea Ahmed came ashore to work at Bangladesh’s national shipping line, but his journey to the International Maritime Organisation began when he was posted to the UK as the company’s European regional representative more than 25 year ago.

From there, he began representing his country at the UN agency and has used his marine technical expertise by serving as chair in key working groups.

This included a period as chair of the technical cooperation committee, chair of the working group on the implementation of The International Conventionon Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers.

Moin also chaired the ship recycling working group at the IMO. The Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships only recently entered into force.

Ahmed is one of seven nominated for the position of secretary-general with the International Maritime Organization. They are: Bangladesh (Moin Ahmed), China (Zhang Xiaojie), Dominica (Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry), Finland (Minna Kivimäki), Kenya (Nancy Karigithu), Panama (Arsenio Dominguez) and Türkiye (Suat Hayri Aka).

The 40 member states of the IMO council will be eligible to vote in the election on Tuesday, July 18, which incudes those from the three different categories.

They include 10 countries with the largest interest in international shipping (Category A), 10 with the largest interest in international trade (Category B), and 20 with special interests in maritime transport or navigation that represent all major geographic areas of the world (Category C).

These are: (A) China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, Panama, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States; (B) Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates; and (B) Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and Vanuatu.