CL 65/2016

IHO File N° S1/1001/WP-FO/592/16 CIRCULAR LETTER 65/2016 09 December 2016 NOTICE OF APPROVAL OF IHO WORK PROGRAMME AND BUDGET FOR 2017 Reference: A. IHO Circular Letter 54/2016 dated 6 October - Proposed IHO Work Programme and Budget for 2017 Dear Hydrographer, 1. Reference A invited Member States to consider and approve the proposed IHO Work Programme and Budget for 2017. 2. The Secretariat thanks the 58 Member States that responded: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay. 3. All respondents approved the proposed Work Programme and Budget for 2017. Australia, Chile, India, Suriname and the United Kingdom provided comments which are reproduced in the Annex to this letter for your information together with comments by the Secretariat, as appropriate. 4. A two-thirds majority of IHO Member States entitled to vote is required to approve the Budget and its associated Work Programme, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention on the IHO that were applicable when the consultation was initiated. There are currently 85 Members States of the IHO, with three States being suspended and not entitled to vote. Therefore the two-thirds majority approval required is 55. As a result the proposed IHO Work Programme and Budget for 2017 have been approved. 5. The Work Programme and Budget for 2017 will be implemented on 1 January 2017. Yours sincerely, Robert WARD Secretary-General Annex A: Comments by Member States on the proposed IHO Work Programme and Budget for 2017  Annex A to IHO CL 65/2016 COMMENTS BY MEMBER STATES ON THE PROPOSED IHO WORK PROGRAMME AND BUDGET FOR 2017 AUSTRALIA Thank you for a well-considered budget. Likewise thank you for the good work leading to this Work Programme CHILE We support that if any extra resources are received due to new MS joining and paying their contributions to the IHO, those resources be oriented to increase the CB Fund. 2017 IHO Work Programme considers the following main meetings: 23- 28 April Assembly (Monaco) 12- 14 June IRCC (Suriname) 17-19 October Council (Monaco) 06- 10 November HSSC (Canada) We consider that scheduling these main events, - the attendance at which, in our opinion is at a Hydrographer’s level - will be difficult to accomplish in 2017, especially under the existing global economic situation and restrictions. As it is well known and recognized, Chile does its best attempts to have a permanent and active participation in IHO activities, nevertheless for the Hydrographer of Chile, finding the time and the resources to cover the travel and justifying the need to attend these four meetings will be very difficult. INDIA Amendment to Annex B, Programme 3, task 3.1.8 NIOHC 17, Meeting venue GOA, India, date July 2017 Secretariat Comments: The published work programme will be updated accordingly. SURINAME Please check column 'Proposed Expenditure for 2017' [in the Annex to the proposed budget on Funds]. The total should be 855,690.02 instead of -47,690.02. Secretariat Comments: The typo will be corrected in the published budget. UNITED KINGDOM The UK supports the intent of the proposed IHO Work Programme for 2017 but has concerns that the Work Programme should clearly identify IHO strategic priorities and be flexible to deal with emerging requirements over the duration of the plan. Furthermore, noting that resources are tight for the current Work Programme, our Proposal (PRO4) to the 1st Assembly was developed to ensure that IHO strategic priorities can be set and met to enable progress against limited resource levels.