Wed,Sep 11,2013
The third United Arab Emirates (UAE) counter-piracy conference, focused on regional public-private partnerships, started Wednesday in Dubai with the participation of 500 delegates from over 50 countries as well as the UN and the International Maritime Organization.
The conference, under the theme of "countering maritime piracy: continued efforts for regional capacity building," was inaugurated by UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The Gulf state is home to Dubai Ports World, the world's third biggest port operator with a vital economic interest in safe seas.
While pirate attacks have significantly dropped in the Gulf of Aden and western Indian Ocean, there are still a reported 57 seafarers held hostage by Somali pirates.
The cost of piracy to the global economy is estimated at around 6 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, according to the UAE government.
Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qerbi told Xinhua on the sidelines of the conference that the situation in the Gulf of Aden has improved significantly since the political progress in Somalia started in August 2012 to end the civil war which started in 1991.
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