Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Mr. Rabindra Adhikari has traveled ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) headquarter at Montreal, Canada to receive the prestigious ‘ICAO Council President Certificate’ for the progress made in the country’s aviation safety.
In support of the ICAO No Country Left Behind initiative, the ICAO Council established the Council President Certificates however, this certificate doesn’t feature financial rewards.
ICAO is providing the certificate to 14 nations, including Nepal, for the significant progress made in 2017 in resolving safety oversight deficiencies and improving the effective implementation of ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs).
Nepal, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Panama, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda and United Republic of Tanzania will be awarded with the ICAO Council President Certificate, according to ICAO.
ICAO has been providing the council president certificate to different member nations every year to honor the progress made by them in air-safety measures.
ICAO awards Council President Certificate to member nations basically on the basis of results of ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program Continuous Monitoring Approach (USOAP CMA) activities, including audits, ICAO Coordinated Validation Missions (ICVMs) and off-site validation activities.
An ICAO Validation Mission in July first week last year had made comprehensive assessment of CAAN, focusing on flight operations and airworthiness and major oversight areas relating to aircraft operations, including legislation and organization. Consequently, ICAO had removed Nepal’s aviation sector from ICAO blacklist.
Nepalese aviation got rid of red safety tag from ICAO however; blacklisting from European Union (EU) is yet to be removed. As per CAAN, they are working deliberately to address the safety concern raised by EU so that the Nepalese aviation can be freed from the ban as soon as possible. For this, the Nepalese Aviation must go through various challenges such as sustainability, implementation of state safety program and institutional reform of civil aviation system.
