The Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) is an autonomous agency of the Panamanian government established on February 1998 to integrate and coordinate the maritime services offered by Panama to the international shipping industry of trade and logistic. Since then, the PMA collaborates with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reaffirm the positioning of the Republic of Panama as a world leader in trade, commerce, transportation, logistics activities, services, industry expansion and maritime traffic to maximise growth and sustainable economic development in the country. Today the PMA has presence in about 65 countries with more than 140 merchant marine consulates and offices that assist clients, seafarers, and ship brokers and owners uninterruptedly in their queries and requirements.

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The PMA offers a broad range of services through its two most important Directorates: The General Directorate of Merchant Marine and The General Directorate of Seafarers (GDS). The GDS enforces domestic and international standards relating to navigability, prevention, technical and social labour measures, representing the expedition of Manning licensing and certification of the core operations for the Seafarer’s Directorate.

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Regional Documentation Offices of the Panama Maritime Authority

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Attending the enquiries of officers and ratings worldwide requires a significant amount of coordination between the Panamanian Consulates and the main technical offices. To ensure a fast delivery, the General Directorate of Seafarers operate decentralised self-sufficient Regional Documentation offices in the most important countries of the world.

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The Regional Documentation Offices (RDO) are branches strategically located in main financial centres around the world such as London. These offices ensure quick issuing of merchant marine licenses to international customers and assure a high-quality confection in compliance with international security standards. The RDO in the United Kingdom verifies, evaluates, prints, issues and delivers the licenses to the Consulates of Panama located in most countries of Europe. The General Directorate of Seafarers have invested in new encrypted technologies that strengthened the quality of the final product, benefiting the final clients, such as merchant officers and ship owners by decreasing safety uncertainty levels across navigation. The new Automation Application System (SAA) provides the ability to digitally apply for a license, giving some Panama Consulates the capacity to issue the licenses directly in their offices; attended and evaluated via online by the Regional Documentation Offices, accelerating the enquiries time of response with speed and dependability.

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