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Reserch onerview

Taiwan is surrounded by the sea on all sides and is strategically located in East Asia, making it a unique island nation. This provides significant advantages for the development of maritime transport and other ocean-related industries. The waters surrounding Taiwan are heavily trafficked, with five major ports — Kaohsiung Port, Taichung Port, Keelung Port, Taipei Port, and Hualien Port — in addition to numerous fishing ports and various types of commercial vessels. This creates a dense and diverse maritime transportation network. In such an active maritime environment, the importance of maritime safety issues becomes increasingly prominent.

In the past, the Maritime Port Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications was the only agency responsible for maritime investigations. However, to ensure the independence and impartiality of investigations into aviation, railway, maritime, and road transportation accidents, and to enhance overall transportation safety, the Taiwanese government established the National Transportation Safety Investigation Committee (NTSA) in 2019 in accordance with the "Transportation Accident Investigation Act" and the "National Transportation Safety Investigation Committee Organizational Act." This independent central-level agency has received 889 reports of accidents in maritime transport and has initiated investigations into 209 of them. As of now, 195 cases have been closed, and 224 safety improvement recommendations have been made. Additionally, 14 cases are still under investigation, with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' Maritime Port Bureau handling the majority of maritime-related cases, mainly focusing on pilotage management, port state control inspections, and safety improvements for fishing vessel facilities.

Maritime cases encompass all incidents related to ships and their operations, including ship collisions, fires, groundings, explosions, and marine pollution. These events can lead to casualties, property damage, and even cause severe environmental harm. Therefore, maritime safety holds a critically important position in overall transportation safety and is one of the key tasks in promoting the development of the transportation sector in Taiwan.

However, at present, there are certain differences among domestic agencies regarding the definition of maritime cases, reporting standards, and statistical mechanisms, which has led to inconsistencies in case reporting and statistics, and increased the difficulty of aligning with international standards. Establishing a unified and standardized definition and statistical mechanism for maritime cases, while ensuring data consistency across different agencies, has become a critical issue that needs to be addressed.

The objective of this research project is to improve Taiwan's maritime statistical mechanism in stages by collecting relevant regulations and best practices from both domestic and international sources, and to develop corresponding standard operating procedures. We will focus on formulating a maritime case statistical mechanism suitable for Taiwan and an assessment method for the Safety Management System (SMS), while establishing credible navigation safety indicators. This initiative will not only help reduce omissions in the reporting or statistics of maritime cases, but also facilitate the integration and alignment with international maritime accident databases. It will further improve Taiwan's maritime case statistical data and continuously assess and monitor the effectiveness of improvements in navigation safety.

Through this research, we aim to lay a more solid foundation for Taiwan's maritime safety management system and enhance our nation's influence in the international maritime community. This will ensure the sustainable development and global competitiveness of Taiwan's shipping industry, while safeguarding maritime safety and strengthening our jurisdictional enforcement capabilities in Taiwanese waters.

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