The IMO Council has appointed Mr. Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco of the Republic of Panama, for an initial 4-year term as next Secretary-General, as of 1 January 2024, subject to the Assembly’s approval.
The IMO Council vote in today´s session for the successor of Kitack Lim, the outgoing Secretary-General.
Seven candidates from Bangladesh, Türkiye, Panama, Dominica, Kenya, Finland and China were included in the final list for the position of International Maritime Organisation´s (IMO) secretary-general.
“Voting on Tuesday 18 July is by secret ballot and there may be several rounds,” said yesterday IMO, which gave to the press the final outcome.
Mr. Kitack Lim will step down as secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), as his term is about to expire on 31st of December 2023.
The candidates’ names included in the list were from the Republic of Panama Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco, Moin Uddin Ahmed from Bangladesh, Suat Hayri Aka from Türkiye, Dr. 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 last December approved the procedures for holding the election of the Secretary-General at the July 2023 session of the Council (C 129).
The election took take place at IMO Headquarters on Tuesday 18 July, with the new Secretary-General to take office on January 1st, 2024.
The decision of the Council will be submitted to the 33rd session of the Assembly of IMO in late 2023. The Assembly will be invited to approve the appointment.
