The Annual meeting of the Board and the Customs WG of the European Organization of Ship Suppliers – OCEAN were held in Sofia on 26^th and 27^th April. The event was hosted by the Bulgarian Ship Suppliers Association and the participants in the meetings were representatives of national ship supply associations from European maritime countries such as The Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden, Italy, Greece, Latvia, etc.

During the event representatives from Bulgarian customs authorities presented the specifics of Bulgarian national regulations and procedures for the ship supply sector with regards to customs and taxation, and discussed with OCEAN members the challenges of implementation of the Union Customs Code.

The topic of cybersecurity for the maritime sector was also brought up and a special presentation on the subject was presented by cyber security expert Mr. Nikolay Tomov, co-founder and general manager of Integris Lab.

Mr. Saeed Al Malik, President of the International Ship Suppliers Association (ISSA) was special guest at the OCEAN Board meeting. Mr. Malik highlighted the future directions for development of ISSA and underlined the benefits of cooperation between ISSA and OCEAN. The collaboration between the two organizations is continuing to develop actively and in November the ship supply community will gather in Istanbul for another important international event – the 63^rd Convention of the International Ship Suppliers Association (ISSA).