The meeting was held in the newly refurbished IMO headquarters in July with a very heavy agenda.
The dominating issue concerned the mandatory carriage of Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) which had been under discussion for some years. After very considerable debate mandatory carriage was finally agreed for new ships after 2012 of size 500 gross tonnage for passenger ships and 3,000 gross tonnage for cargo ships. A timescale for existing ships down to 10,000 gross tonnage for cargo ships was agreed extending out to 2018. A further mandatory carriage requirement was agreed for a Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm System for passenger ships and cargo ships of 150 gross tonnage starting from 2011.