The National Transport Authority led a meeting on Monday March 31st, 2010 with a Syrian delegation to discuss the agreement with the Ministry of Transport and on the mutual recognition of marine qualifications that certify seafarers. Attending this meeting was H.E. Dr. Nasser Al Mansouri - Director General of the National Transport Authority, H.E. Salem Al Zaabi - Executive Director of Maritime Transport Sector, Dr. Saoud Al Junaibi – Director of Operations and Maritime Safety, Captain Saleem Alavi & Captain Osama Sultan and from the Syrian delegation Mr. Ghazi Hamdan – Director General of the Directorate General Ports & Alaa Suleiman – Director of Maritime Inspections of the Directorate General of Ports.

The purpose of the visit was to see the standards of training and qualification and the procedures for the efficiency, the mechanism that is used for the registration, ratification, verification and the cancellation of maritime certificates; as well as the health and medical standards of seafarers within the country to insure the signing of the memorandum of understanding on mutual recognition. The attendees also discussed other Maritime Transport between the two countries.