Geneva, 24 September 2010 - Access to global markets is a cornerstone of economic development and poverty reduction. For that reason, developing countries need to improve the management of their ports. The cooperation agreement signed this morning by UNCTAD Secretary-General, Supachai Panitchpakdi, and the director of Marseille´s Grand Port Maritime, Jean-Claude Terrier, seals a partnership that seeks to strengthen the port community of developing countries in French-speaking Africa.
The ceremony was attended by the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Jean-Baptiste Mattéi; the Ambassador of Benin, Séraphin Lissassi; the Ambassador of Djibouti, Mohamed Siad Doualeh; the Ambassador of Guinea, Mohamed Camara; the Ambassador of Senegal, Mr. Babacar Carlos Mbaye; and representatives of Togo, Sébadé Toba, and Cameroon, Paul Batibonak.
Port-management training given in Africa, Asia, and Latin America under UNCTAD´s TrainForTrade programme is designed to improve skills. Instructors trained by UNCTAD, in cooperation with ports of developed countries, provide 240 hours of training on the ground, spread over two years. At the end of the training, after defending their final dissertations before an international panel of experts, participants are awarded an UNCTAD Port Certificate.
Cooperation between Marseille´s Grand Port Maritime and UNCTAD began in 1996. Under the partnership so far, 60 trainers from beneficiary countries have attended seminars run by instructors from Marseille. Instructors also travel to the countries involved, to support training at the local level. Under this partnership, 42 training courses have been held to date, resulting in some 625 port operators being trained.
