The Philippines was one of six beneficiary Asean countries that participated in the technical assistance project of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). The project had the overall objective of assisting participating countries in protecting the marine environment in the region through accelerating the ratification and implementation of IMO conventions relating to marine environment protection. The other participating countries were Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The IMO conventions covered by the project were the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (Marpol), Ballast Water Management Convention (BWM), Anti-Fouling System Convention (AFS), and the London Convention/Protocol (Anti-Dumping of Waste).