PRESS RELEASE

Hurtigruten is known world-wide for its exceptional cruises - with the most well liked navigating along the 1,250-mile western coast of Norway above and below the Arctic Circle, stopping at small fishing towns and important cities.

Hurtigruten has been an integral part of Norwegian coastal life for over a century, crossing the Arctic Circle to sail deep into the heart of spectacular landscapes along some of the worlds most complex sea areas for safe navigation - facing all types of weather and conditions.

Hurtigruten have after having evaluated and established PRIMAR ENC as the safest and most economical possible electronic charts, have selected the PRIMAR ENC service as its source for electronic navigational charts (ENCs), taking advantage of the fact that the Norwegian coast is fully covered.

In a statement congratulating Hurtigruten, Gerry Larsson-Fedde, the Norwegian Hydrographer commented "We are delighted that Hurtigruten has started to use the PRIMAR ENC service. In my view Hurtigruten stands for a long tradition of professional navigation on one of the most challenging coastline in the world"

Norway has available some 932 ENC charts available, fully integrated into the PRIMAR ENC service, available from 54 distributors worldwide.

Further information from:

Capt Sach Sharma, market relations manager, PRIMAR, Norwegian Hydrographic Service
Tel: +47 51 85 87 86, mobile: +47 46 84 00 76, fax: +47 51 85 87 01
E-mail: sach.sharma@statkart.no Web: www.primar.org


NOTES TO EDITORS

PRIMAR

The PRIMAR ENC service is operated by the Norwegian Hydrographic Service through a regional ENC coordinator centre (RENC) regime and distributor agreements with countries and ENC suppliers.

Currently offering more than 8 350 ENCs, it works with an international network of authorised distributors. Regular updates are provided by standard CDs, the PRIMAR Chart Catalogue, PRIMAR Online remote updating and PRIMAR ECDIS OnlineTM.

ENCs from PRIMAR meet IMO SOLAS chart carriage requirements when kept up-to-date and used in conjunction with a type-approved electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) plus appropriate backup.

The Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has agreed to adopt the recommendations on the adoption of a mandatory carriage requirement for ECDIS and Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs).

The proposed change to SOLAS Regulation V19 which requires the fitting of ECDIS on a range of vessel types and sizes starting in 2012 and phased over a six year period will be put forward for formal adoption at the next MSC meeting in May 2009.