The conference shall have an Expert Panel, led by Dr. Aldo Drago Director of the IOI-MOC, who shall be dealing with issues such as how the marine sector is contributing to the Maltese economy, the future evolutions necessary to meet the demands of short and long term visions calling for a stronger maritime focus, the ingredients necessary to support our commitment to safeguard the marine environment, the optimization of the use of marine resources, the concept of operational oceanography, and the improvement of marine-related activities of socio-economic and scientific value through marine data acquisition and forecasting systems.

The seminar is organized within the NET.MARI.MED (Network for supporting Marine Affairs in the Mediterranean) project which is conducted under the INTERREG IIIB Archimed Community Initiative, and partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund which forms part of the Structural Funds Programme for Malta (2004 – 2006).