SPA chief takes part in PMAESA workshop in Zambia |03 July 2017

The chief executive of the Seychelles Ports Authority (SPA) Colonel Andre Ciseau recently took part in a workshop entitled ‘Steering Trade Through Water Ways for Positive Economic Growth’.

The workshop was held in Zambia during the first week of June 2017 and organised by the Port Management Association for Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA) in collaboration with the Zambia Development Agency, United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) and the Zambian Harbour Corporation.

Col. Ciseau, who also chairs the Ports Association of the Indian Ocean Islands (APIOI), is also a board member of PMAESA representing the Indian Ocean Islands ports.

The workshop deliberated intensively on challenges faced by businesses while trading across the borders with logistics cost, complex procedures that impact adversely on the economic chain which eventually result in high cost and poor quality goods to the citizens.

Emphasis was laid on practical reviews of doing business, harmonisation of procedures and simplifying of protocols in order to improve cost advantage, economic development, growth and food security.

Col. Ciseau also made a presentation on ‘Trade Diversification – A Seychelles Case Study’.

During the presentation he touched upon trade barriers and challenges for small countries like Seychelles to penetrate the mainland African market with commodities such as fish and fish-related products which are important for food security and sources of protein.

He pointed out that there were countries importing fish from Asia while in the neighbouring islands there was plentiful of good quality fish and fish products that could cost relatively cheaper on African markets.

He gave examples of the by-catch of fish that are landed and processed for re- export in Seychelles.

CIF rates

The issues of Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) that PMAESA started to discuss over a year ago during one of its meetings in Addis Ababa is seeing progress.

Some countries in East Africa working in collaboration with insurance companies are revising existing policy and legislative frameworks to encourage businesses to work through local/regional service providers on the CIF services in order to reduce the billions of dollars paid to service providers outside the region and who most of the time, importers do not even know about and who occasionally when required to take their responsibility to cover damages to good, are nowhere to be seen or cannot be contacted.

PMAESA continues to engage other regional partners, stakeholders, the business communities and insurance companies to consider reviewing their services and to seriously come up with solutions for the CIF services that can save Africa a significant amount of money annually and help to lower the cost of commodities.

Col. Ciseau believes that it is high time that all national mechanisms be engaged to see how effective local and International trading is carried out, to review the local and regional barriers and to step up efforts in order to facilitate trade within the region and to compete with outsiders in areas where local businesses have potentials, capacities and cost advantages.

He spoke about more research on the significant ‘but unnecessary’ spending on the Insurances Demurrage and to establish stronger relationships with regional organisations that could help keep the cost of doing business low and pricing affordable.

Courtesy call on Uneca and Comesa

Though Seychelles falls under the Eastern African Region, Col. Ciseau also formed part of the PMAESA delegation under the leadership of the secretary general, Nozipho Mdawe, that paid a courtesy call on the director for the Uneca sub- regional office for Southern Africa, Professor Said Adejoubi.

During the meeting with Uneca the challenges facing small ports were also addressed including the necessity for more capacity building for the human resources advancement that is vital to maintain continuity for the smaller island ports to be able to remain relevant in the major African ports strategic development and the maritime sector rapid progress.

The issues faced by small island states that have one main international port terminal and have to re-distribute goods to other domestic islands while having to keep the transportation and logistics cost affordable was also discussed to create greater awareness of the challenges faced by sea link states.

The importance of developing the African Shipping Line and Regional Cabotage and the importance of the Integrated Cruise Strategy was also discussed.

During the courtesy call on the secretary general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) a memorandum of understanding promoting stronger collaboration and technical support for PMAESA was signed between the two secretary generals.

The issue of regional integrated support projects such as the Ports (IT) Information System was discussed and the secretary general of the COMESA is positive about the subject which he said was part of Comesa’s strategic development goals for capacity building in Africa.  He has asked Lanka Dorby, a Seychelloise working at the Comesa head office, to bring up the dossier for follow up action.

During one of the periphery meetings, Col. Ciseau discussed with the PMAESA secretary general to seek the support of a regional expert to assist Seychelles to review the existing protocols and evacuation plan on chemical dangers and risks in the port area.

Col. Ciseau believes that as a country we must continue to look for possibilities to join relevant international bodies in order to form a common block between neighbouring countries with the aim of sensitising, empowering and informing the communities on the best practices that will be beneficial to their businesses and maritime activities that will eventually have positive effects on the country’s economy and cost of living.

“We must continue to work towards getting better freight rates from shipping lines by working/collaborating with major regional importers of common commodities thereby decreasing the cost of logistics for our region which is considered among the highest,” Col. Ciseau said.

He continued by saying that SPA would continue to research and engage with appropriate regional partners in order to inform higher national authorities all possible avenues that Seychelles could explore to bring down the cost of living associated with international trade.

In early July, the PMAESA will have its board meeting and host a high level meeting in Seychelles on port container terminal concession guidelines, and the role of integrated tourism as a method to revive cruise tourism.