The East Asia Hydrographic Commission (EAHC) was formed within the framework of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). The mission of it is 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. In this respect, the EAHC is very pleased to accomplish this mission by producing small scale official Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) of the South China Sea to serve the maritime community. Presently, the EAHC has nine Member States (MSs) : China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

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. Over the years littoral MSs of the SCS, as well as some countries outside the region, have produced small scale paper charts covering the area. MSs of the EAHC produced large scale ENCs covering their own waters, particularly the major ports.

Realizing that official and high quality small scale ENCs conforming with the established IHO standard were not available for the SCS, the EAHC MSs decided to cooperate closely and resolve the situation so that mariners could use most up-to-date chart information for voyage planning and enhancing safety of navigation, rather than resorted to some commercially developed electronic products which were either prepared in proprietary formats, or containing unofficial data with very infrequent updating.

In March 2005, the First Edition SCS ENC was launched using a number of paper charts ranging from a scale of 1:200,000 to 1:1,250,000 produced by the littoral MSs as source data. The MSs had generously shared with the EAHC the copyright of the data depicted from these selected paper charts and ENCs.

The Second Edition SCS ENC is launched on 1 October 2008 and is produced based on most up-to-date data. The compilation scale of this new edition ENC is 1:700,000 and is categorized under the usage band of General Navigational Purpose. It complies with IHO Transfer Standard for Digital Hydrographic Data S-57 Edition 3.1.1 specifications.

It was the view that if the SCS ENC could be freely and widely available to mariners, it would further enhance the safety of navigation in the region. This in turn could reduce the chances of environmental damage from grounding and oil pollution, which have tremendous cost impact. The EAHC decided to provide the SCS ENC to users free of charge.

To allow wider distribution of the SCS ENC, third parties, such as Hydrographic Offices outside the region, chart agents and ENC centres are allowed to distribute the ENC. These third parties need to obtain distribution permission from the EAHC. They should not charge their customers for the SCS ENC.

To download the SCS ENC, user has to register with the EAHC. After registration, registered user will receive via email a password for accessing the Download Page and the Updating Page.

The SCS ENC will be updated on monthly basis. Registered users will receive notification by email when updates are available for downloading.