National Maritime & Ports Days:

Limbe Port Operations to Witness Big Boost                                                              

By Ticha Melanis in Limbe 

The minister of transport Jean Ernest Massina Ngalle Bibehe has noted that the operationalization of the Limbe deep sea port will revamp the activities of the Cameroon shipyard, the transfers of the mixed fruit terminal of Cameroon from the Douala port to Limbe and the operation will ensure export at a lower cost, of agricultural products produced in the South West region as well as the creation of a cartonery factory.

               

Minister of transport Jean Ernest Massina Ngalle Bibehe

He made the remark while launching the third edition of the national maritime and port days in Limbe organized by the national port authority under the theme “The quality of services, guarantor of competitiveness in Cameroon ports”. He equally said that the Cameroon government is sparing no effort in the modernization of the maritime and port sector which he explained that it is very important to the economy because it handles nearly 95% of economic trade in Cameroon and recorded traffic of nearly 20,000,000 tons of goods at the end of the previous year. He added that the vision of the government is aim at enabling the sector to fully play the role, through the match with ISPS security and safety standards, and the modernization of port infrastructure which will make the Cameroonian coastline, a unique port complex capable of attracting important traffic and improving Cameroon’s maritime services.

                In his welcome speech, the government delegate to the Limbe city council expressed his joy for the choice of Limbe to host the event as he stated that no man can underestimate the very important contribution of maritime transport and the ports sector to international trade and business and their catalyzing force to the development of national economies. He added that a great boost to the development of the port sector will be the construction of the long-awaited deep seaport in Limbe.

                For two days participants exchange on the concepts of quality and competitiveness as well as strategise on the means to improve the quality of port services, in compliance with international standard, in order to make them more competitive and ready to face sub-regional competition. During the fruitful debate, deliberations and discussions the port experts came up with several recommendations directed to specific quarters;

                To the attention of the government, they call on them to rectify the Abuja memorandum of understanding on port state control of ships, beef up the process of dematerialization of procedures, formalities and exchanges in the processing of information, goods and research, Create national or sub regional maritime transport companies and more. To the Cameroon national shippers council; provide legal assistance to small shippers in event of litigation, develop capacity building programs depending on the specific needs of each category of shipper.  They equally made recommendations to the attention of the national port authority for regular auditing of the port services at the national level, to the autonomous port organization which is made up of four ports and to a one stop shop for external trade operation.

                Satisfy with the outcome of the meetings, the SDO for Fako Engamba Emmanuel Ledoux on behalf of the minister of transport closed the ceremony with words of congratulation to all the participants for their patience and determination to see the port sector develop. He said recommendations made at the end of the meeting testify the seriousness that characterized the deliberations. He made it clear that on the sideline of the realization of major projects in this sector notably the extension of the Douala port, the second phase of the construction of the Kribi deep sea port and the project to construct the Limbe deep sea port align to the respect of quality becomes imperative to ensure the competiveness of ports in the country. He told participants that the guarantee of sufficient satisfaction is amongst the major marketing strategy in the domain of services which is within the framework of port services, the notion of quality embodies many aspects amongst which are; respect of services offered, the capacity of reception of the port, security and safety and more.

                From diagnosis make in the course of exposes presented during the deliberations, it is obvious that numerous measures have been put in place in order to give clients of Cameroon port variety of choice.