Namibia backs global aviation security plan

WINDHOEK. — Namibia has expressed its full support for the new International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Global Aviation Security Plan (GASeP) expected to come into force in 2019. This comes after, Cabinet last week authorised the Ministry of Works and Transport to notify the ICAO of its support for the adoption of ICAO proposed GASeP which will be adopted by member states during the 2019, ICAO Assembly.

This was announced by Minister of Information Communication and Technology (MICT) Tjekero Tweya. The new ICAO GASeP is seen as a natural outcome arising from the UN aviation agency’s global leadership role in air transport security coordination. The GASeP core objectives are to enhance risk awareness and response, establish a better-defined security culture, refine related technologies while fostering new innovations, and to improve oversight and quality assurance while increasing cooperation among member states, global and local organisations.

It is currently expected to be approved by the ICAO Council at its next session this November, and in the ensuing months a key priority will be to ramp up related global commitments and outreach. In a comprehensive aviation security update presented recently to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), ICAO Secretary- General Dr Fang Liu called on this prominent UN body to promote greater international awareness and implementation in aid of ICAO’s new GASeP.

“This pivotal document, which focuses extensively on the threat of terrorism to civil aviation, has benefited from extensive inputs on behalf of both governments and industry,” Dr Liu commented.

“Its objectives align with those of UN Security Council Resolution 2309, and once finalised it will be the primary tool by which the aviation security community fulfils its diverse roles.” As the current threat and risk environment demands that aviation security remain among the highest of priorities for the global international community, the GASeP will be the centre-piece of a global holistic and coordinated effort to counter aviation threats, which will in turn ensure that a secure aviation system becomes a pillar of global economic growth and prosperity.

Tweya also said Cabinet had approved the hunting concessions for the period 2018-2022 on state land. He said Cabinet had directed the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to review the concession contracts after three years, as well as to adjust quotas as information is collected about the population status of affected species. — New Era.

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