Establishing the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) as a Regional Institute for Maritime Transport started as a notion in the Arab League Transport Committee''s meetings on 11th of March, 1970. This notion came after the Arab League’s Council issued, in its fifty third session, decree no. 2631/1970 stipulating the endorsement of founding a regional center for Maritime Transport training. The decree commissioned the Arab Republic of Egypt, on behalf of all the Arab countries, to ask for a technical aid from the United Nations’ organizations specialized in the field of maritime transport.

By the end of 1971, the United Nations delegated a joint committee of its concerned organizations to study the region''s need for this project. It highlighted the necessity of founding a regional institute for maritime training and also of providing adequate aid for it. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) approved funding 3.2 million dollars on condition that the participant Arab countries contribute a sum of 8.25 million Egyptian pounds during a period of five years. Moreover, after visiting many of the region''s countries, the committee chose the city of Alexandria, known for its great cultural legacy, as a location because of its important geographical location, which is in the middle of the whole Arab region, as well as the abundance of the qualified personnel available.

Eventually, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) prepared document number (REM/71L286/01/19) for the project of establishing the Arab Academy for Maritime Transport in Alexandria in cooperation with the International Maritime Consultancy Organization of Governments as an executive agency of the project and the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development as a participant (UNCTAD)

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