The Project

Norway is dedicated to assist and facilitate the reduction of administrative burdens in the maritime sector. Based on the experience in electronic facilitation of the maritime trade Norway agreed in 2017 to offer in-kind and financial support to IMO, under the Integrated Technical Cooperation programme for the establishment of a national MSW in Antigua and Barbuda.

The project was designed to facilitate the implementation of a MSW in Antigua and Barbuda; providing a system for maritime transport clearance, including the clearance of the ship electronically by the deadline 8 April 2019, as a mandatory requirement according to the above mentioned Standard 1.3bis.

Antigua and Barbuda and Norway have been the main stakeholders in the project, where Norway has provided in-kind and financial support to the beneficiary country, Antigua and Barbuda, and IMO has assumed a coordination role between the two countries by providing administrative assistance to the parties during the project timeline.

A Steering Committee was established consisting of representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, IMO and Norway, and chaired by the IMO.

To enable quick deployment and testing during the project, the generic MSW System was deployed using cloud services. However, with minor adaptations, the System could be deployed on multiple platforms on a local installation, which is the preferred option for of Antigua and Barbuda when the System is fully implemented.

The first version of the basic generic Single Window was deployed according to the plan and was introduced to the stakeholders in Antigua and Barbuda trough a 3-days training and workshop session in St. Johns in June 2018. During the sessions, the stakeholders were given a thorough training and given the opportunity to use and test the MSW system.