On the afternoon of January 15, the symposium on draft amendment of the Maritime Traffic Safety Law (hereafter referred to as the Law) was held by the Constitution and Law Committee of the National People's Congress, the Finance and Economy Committee and Commission of Legislative Affairs jointly, which presided by Hu Keming, deputy director of the Constitution and Law Committee of the National People's Congress. In the meantime, Xiong Qunli, deputy director of the Finance and Economy Committee of the National People's Congress, attended the symposium.During the symposium, multiple representatives and experts participated and provided opinions on the amendment of the Law, which includes personnel from Legislative Bureau of the Central Military Commission, the Naval Command, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Emergency Management, China Merchants Group, China Institute of Navigation, China Diving and Salvage Contractors Association, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Justice, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Tsinghua University. Zhang Baochen, the executive vice-president of China Institute of Navigation, made suggestions on several aspects, including safety measures for pilot boarding and disembarking, putting sea trials and navigation experiments under the supervision of offshore construction, the issuance of maritime labor certificates and reducing the State Council’s approval on matters of maritime traffic safety management and the equipment of ship charts.
