RIYADH: ALVIN PATRICK RELOX
The Saudi government announced yesterday that it would donate $300,000 to a trust fund that aims to abolish maritime piracy off the coast of Somalia and to support the prosecutorial legal process.
Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Kabeer, undersecretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral Relations in the UAE, made the announcement in his speech in Dubai during the 3rd conference against maritime piracy. The theme of the conference was “Anti-Piracy: A Continuing Task to Build Regional Capacity.”
Saudi Arabia is known for its active role in combating piracy around the world, as it greatly affects local and international sales of goods in the entertainment industry.
Last year, the government adopted the Unfair Competition Law (UCL) to further boost the Kingdom’s campaign against piracy.
The Kingdom also provided expert training courses for coast guards to identify, prosecute and apprehend pirates in the Arabian Sea’s borders.
Piracy along the Somali coast has threatened the international shipping industry since the Somali civil war.
International deliveries are frequently interrupted along the Somali coast, which has resulted in an unprecedented rise in shipping expenses amounting to around $6.6-6.9 billion a year, according to statistics provided by Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP).
Via: http://www.arabnews.com/
