May has been a very busy month for the managers of the Port Authority of Kribi. To give exposure and promote the Port of Kribi to international operators and to strengthen cooperation ties with partners worldwide, PAK managers led by Patrice MELOM, the General Manager, attended several events in various countries.
Strengthen Ties with International Partners
The round of events started in Morocco, namely in Tangier where a series of meetings and visits were organized by Tanger Med Engineering (TME), a partner of PAK. The trip to Tangier is part of the partnership agreement signed on 6 February 2022 which consists in having technical cooperation in order to draw up a roadmap to develop activity zones, co-investment, management models for services and networks.
Then came the Cameroon economic and cultural week in the Hague, Netherlands held from 10 to 15 May 2022 that PAK attended under the auspices of the Ministry of External Relations (MINREX). The Cameroonian delegation took part in the event to promote the country’s economic and cultural assets, to strengthen and forge public-private partnerships in various domains and work on attracting directs Dutch investments, etc. Items on the agenda included an exhibition with some 20 Dutch and Cameroonian companies, political meetings, conferences and B2Bs, several site visits, namely Dutch cities, companies and ports. In a nutshell, Cameroon’s economic and cultural Week raised the interest of the Dutch community in Cameroonian institutions and companies such as PAK.
Finally, to tackle major challenges such as the disruption of supply chain due to the pandemic and energy transition that has become a must with global warming and digitization, PAK equally attended the 1st annual conference of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH). The event held face-to-face gathered prominent figures of the port and maritime industry.
As an active member of the Worldwide Network of Port Cities (AIVP), the Port Authority of Kribi sent a delegation of managers to attend the 17th Conference of the institution held from 11 to 13 May 2022 in the mythical city of Tangier, Morocco. The event brought together world leaders in sustainable development such as the AIVP’s President Édouard Philippe, AIVP’s General Manager, some 30 ports in the world represented by General Managers and Top Managers as well as several prominent figures. The theme ‘’Inspiring blue futures’’ provided room to discuss and exchange on technology innovation, namely energy transfer and the new tools to protect biodiversity in port cities. Concerned with issues related to sustainable development, PAK actively participated with a presentation on the PASEK project and the equipment acquired to make the Port of Kribi a blue port.
In a view to further promoting investments and trade between China(the Hunan-Changsha province) and Cameroon, and strengthening the development of bilateral economic and commercial ties between both countries, PAK participated in the China-Cameroon conference for economic and commercial cooperation. Micheal MAMA, PAK Operations Manager, took part online and made a presentation on the opportunities of the Port of Kribi, its rich agricultural, energy and other resources. He equally seized the opportunity to reach out to China for potential cooperation opportunities to further develop the Port complex in terms of infrastructure, logistics, trade and other related domains.
