LONDON : IMO Assembly approves decision of Council to appoint Mr. Dominguez Velasco as Secretary-General with effect from 1 January 2024

Mr. Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco has been confirmed as the next Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The IMO Assembly unanimously approved (30 November) the decision of the Council at its 129th session (C129) to appoint him to the role.

Mr. Dominguez Velasco will take up the office of Secretary-General on 1 January 2024 for an initial term of four years, ending on 31 December 2027. He becomes the Organization’s 10th elected Secretary-General. The outgoing Secretary-General, Mr. Kitack Lim, congratulated his successor on his appointment.

Mr. Lim said:  “I am confident that the Membership as a whole has made a wise decision, and that Mr. Dominguez Velasco will ably lead the Secretariat in promoting the mandate of the Organization and in the delivery of its objectives.” Mr. Lim pledged to work with Mr. Dominguez Velasco to ensure an orderly and successful hand-over and, in what he called a “symbolic act of transition and succession”, he handed a comprehensive briefing paper to Mr. Dominguez to assist him in his preparation for the role of Secretary-General.