The East Asia Hydrographic Commission (EAHC) is composed of nine Member
States
(MSs) which includes :- China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Joined the EAHC on 16 Aug 2005), Indonesia,
Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The Commission
was formed within the framework of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) to work out regional cooperative programmes through the endeavors of national hydrographic offices for the provision of adequate and timely hydrographic information for marine navigation in the region.
The South China Sea (SCS) is one of the world's busiest international sea lanes. More than half of the world's supertanker traffic passes through the region's waters. Over half of the world's merchant fleet (by tonnage) sails through the SCS every year.
The SCS is covered with paper charts produced by littoral MSs of the EAHC as well as by some countries outside the region. MSs of the EAHC have produced large scale ENCs covering their own waters, particularly their major ports. There are in the market some commercially developed electronic products which are either prepared in proprietary formats or containing unofficial data with very infrequent updating. However, official and high quality small scale ENCs conforming with the established IHO standard are not yet available for covering the SCS. The EAHC MSs decided to cooperate closely and urgently resolve this situation to facilitate mariners the most up-to-date chart information for voyage planning and safety of navigation in the SCS.
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