On St. Nicholas’ Day, day of the seamen, Božidar Kalmeta the Minister of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development at the central ceremony organized in Pula, awarded with prizes all those meritorious in the field of maritime activities.
Minister Kalmeta stated that this was a very important day for Croatia since Croatia was and would remain in the future a maritime country. According to his words Croatia was a country of seamen and ship operators and that was the reason why they should receive the kind of status they deserved. He added that Croatia was aware of the importance of seamen and sea operators and that was the reason why the Government was fulfilling all conditions to enlarge the national fleet and to improve the port infrastructures.
He reminded the audience how the Government had proposed and the Croatian Parliament had ratified the Maritime Act, he added that the Pre-accession Maritime Transport Strategy defined the safety of navigation, the protection of maritime domain, the status of seamen, the development of shipping industry and the construction of ports. Due to a shortage of professional seamen in the world, Croatia, the Ministry, will introduce for the first time scholarships, in 2006. Those scholarships will be accessible for university students and for pupils of nautical schools, the Minister said.
In the next period the following regulations of the Maritime Act will be fully realized – regulations for the complete professional and legal protection of all Croatian seamen, no matter under what flag they are sailing. They all will be incorporated in the Croatian legal system, Kalmeta concluded. He also added that the Government would continue to set aside 10% for the subsidized construction of Croatian ships in Croatian shipyards.
At today"s ceremony in Pula the following were awarded: for the successful conduct of business the "Tankerska plovidba" from Zadar and the "Atlantska plovidba" from Dubrovnik; for the improvement of navigation security and the protection of marine environment the Institute "Fridtjof Nansen" from Oslo who has been cooperating with Croatian institutions for several years, also impressive is the financial support secured by the Norwegian Government for the draft of the study on ballast waters. The same award was given to the ‘National Headquarters for Search and Rescue on Sea’ which managed to coordinate in this year 285 rescue actions, i.e. the rescuing of 631 persons.
Awards for search and rescuing on sea received also Slaven Brkić and Berislav Kutija from Zadar. With their boats, they managed to save from a yacht a German citizen on 7 June between the islands of Olib and Vir. The same award received Vladimir Biondić from Senj who saved during a storm, with his crew, two German families on 21 July in the Podvelebit channel and Siniša Petković from Šibenik who, together with his crew, saved a seven member crew from an endangered yacht.
For the promotion of maritime culture, a reward received the "Jutarnji list" journalist, Nevenka Horvat. (Hina)
