Upgrading Gabon's Main Access to World Market by USA TODAY (United States: Valorisation Economique du Gabon)
Because Gabon's economy depends on export's of raw materials- chiefly oil, wood and minerals- Gabon's port are vital to the country's development.
The macro-economic analysis
has shown that ports were
Gabon’s real economic lungs.
As proof, 90% of the country’s
total trade passes through the
ports. For this reason, Gabon’s
port authority (OPRAG) has
developed a strategic vision, in
line with the President’s Emergence
Plan, that could be
summed up in five points: the
reinforcement of the State’s
role and power, the will to be
aligned to the international
norms, the improvement of
the ports’ infrastructure, the
development of the internal
competencies to be more competitive,
and to become a regional
hub. To implement this
vision they have different projects
in the pipelines.
Rigobert Ikambouayat Ndéka,
CEO of OPRAG, details
some of the planned improvements.
“On the site of
Owendo, we plan to increase
the quay length: we will extend
our current quays up to 300
linear meters,” he says. “These
quays will be equipped with
container cranes and should
be delivered at the beginning
of 2013.
“In the meantime, one of our
priority actions is to overcome
the absence of modern handling
equipment with the acquisition
and operation, by
June 2011, of two 100-ton mobile
cranes. Another project is
the construction of a truly
modern port authority building.
This new office will be
equipped with an electronic
documents transmission system
which should significantly
reduce the [current] stopover
delays. In order to complete
these operations, logistics
zones have been created to
benefit the industries.”
At Gabon’s ports, OPRAG
works in partnership with
Gabon Port Management, a
subsidiary of Singapore’s
Portek International, which
was awarded the concession of
port operations in 2007.
Philipe Gery, CEO of Gabon
Port Management, describes
the idea behind the ambitious
upgrades to the Port of Owendo:
“The idea is to make the
port evolve from a poor condition,
just reaching the demand
of the Gabonese
economy, to a situation where
we will be way ahead of future
projections, and should be fully
able to meet all the demand
in about two and a half years.”