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Antwerp and Port of Dakar plan major hub role for West Africa
来源： 编辑：编辑部 发布：2018/03/16 08:42:53
THE Port of Antwerp, Europe's second biggest after Rotterdam, is making a big effort to shore up relation with West Africa.
To this end the Belgian port has signed a cooperation agreement with the Senegalese Port of Dakar to encourage its growing role as a central regional freight hub.
Each port authority has signed a Memorandum of Understanding at a ceremony attended by the Belgian first minister Charles Michel and deputy first minister and minister of Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo.
The MoU also contains commitments in the area of marketing, developing trade relations, organising joint commercial events and exchanging information on subjects such as customs and excise, security and sustainability. The agreement has been signed for a period of five years.
Aboubacar Sedikh Beye signed for the Port Autonome de Dakar while Kristof Waterschoot, CEO of two subsidiaries of Antwerp Port Authority (PAI and APEC) , represented the Antwerp side.
With an annual freight volume of 17 million tonnes, Dakar is one of the largest ports on the coast of West Africa, and occupies a strong position at the crossroads of sailing routes between Europe and North and South America as well as southern Africa.
Thanks to its excellent sea access, Dakar is one of the few West African ports that are able to handle ships of all dimensions at any time.
But now Dakar has set its sights higher and plans to build a new port 50 kilometres away from the present facility with 18 metres alongside, thus be able to handle the latest generation of mega ships.
Together with the new Port of Dakar, there are also plans for an economic and logistics zone of 600 hectares.
Said Mr Waterschoot: "Antwerp will make use of our experience and expertise to help Dakar realise its ambitions."
While the World Bank backs the economic potential of the continent, it also notes a lack of trained personnel to fulfil the ambitions of both parties.
Said Mr Waterschoot: "We will immediately step in to fill this gap, by sharing our know-how and expertise. Our training centre APEC remains the partner of choice for training maritime professionals, while our consultancy subsidiary PAI will assist the port authority with the necessary expertise for developing a multipurpose terminal and deepening the approach channels so as to maximise the capacity of the port of Dakar."
The MoU also contains a number of commitments in the area of marketing, developing trade relations, organising joint commercial events and exchanging information on subjects such as customs and excise, security and sustainability. The agreement has been signed for a period of five years.
To this end the Belgian port has signed a cooperation agreement with the Senegalese Port of Dakar to encourage its growing role as a central regional freight hub.
Each port authority has signed a Memorandum of Understanding at a ceremony attended by the Belgian first minister Charles Michel and deputy first minister and minister of Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo.
The MoU also contains commitments in the area of marketing, developing trade relations, organising joint commercial events and exchanging information on subjects such as customs and excise, security and sustainability. The agreement has been signed for a period of five years.
Aboubacar Sedikh Beye signed for the Port Autonome de Dakar while Kristof Waterschoot, CEO of two subsidiaries of Antwerp Port Authority (PAI and APEC) , represented the Antwerp side.
With an annual freight volume of 17 million tonnes, Dakar is one of the largest ports on the coast of West Africa, and occupies a strong position at the crossroads of sailing routes between Europe and North and South America as well as southern Africa.
Thanks to its excellent sea access, Dakar is one of the few West African ports that are able to handle ships of all dimensions at any time.
But now Dakar has set its sights higher and plans to build a new port 50 kilometres away from the present facility with 18 metres alongside, thus be able to handle the latest generation of mega ships.
Together with the new Port of Dakar, there are also plans for an economic and logistics zone of 600 hectares.
Said Mr Waterschoot: "Antwerp will make use of our experience and expertise to help Dakar realise its ambitions."
While the World Bank backs the economic potential of the continent, it also notes a lack of trained personnel to fulfil the ambitions of both parties.
Said Mr Waterschoot: "We will immediately step in to fill this gap, by sharing our know-how and expertise. Our training centre APEC remains the partner of choice for training maritime professionals, while our consultancy subsidiary PAI will assist the port authority with the necessary expertise for developing a multipurpose terminal and deepening the approach channels so as to maximise the capacity of the port of Dakar."
The MoU also contains a number of commitments in the area of marketing, developing trade relations, organising joint commercial events and exchanging information on subjects such as customs and excise, security and sustainability. The agreement has been signed for a period of five years.