IMO elects new secretary-general

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has elected Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco of the Republic of Panama as its next secretary-general allmarinenews uniforms.

The term of the incumbent secretary-general, Kitack Lim of the Republic of Korea, expires on December 31, 2023. The newly elected secretary-general will take office on January 1st, 2024, and serve a four-year term.  

In April this year, seven IMO Member States nominated a candidate for the post of secretary-general of the IMO.

The six nominated candidates apart from Dominguez were Moin Uddin Ahmed from Bangladesh, Suat Hayri Aka from Turkey, Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry from Dominica, Nancy Karigithu from Kenya, Minna Kivimäki from Finland, and Zhang Xiaojie from China.

The IMO Council at its 128th session in December 2022 approved the procedures for holding the election of the Secretary-General at the July 2023 session of the Council. 

Now that the election of Dominguez is complete, the decision of the Council will be submitted to the 33rd session of the Assembly of IMO in late 2023 for approval.

Dominguez is currently the director of the Marine Environment Division of the IMO, having served previously as the director of the Administrative Division and as the chief of staff.

Before joining IMO in July 2017, he worked for the Panama Maritime Authority starting in 1998 as head of the Regional Technical and Documentation Office for Europe and North Africa, and as the alternate representative and technical adviser of Panama to IMO from 2004 to 2014.