The Autonomous Port of Douala (PAD) and the Grand Maritime Port of Bordeaux (GPMB) in France signed a three-year cooperation agreement covering several areas of intervention. In initialing this document, the Deputy Director General of the GPMB, Renaud Picard, indicated that the CSA, which is in a restructuring phase, could benefit from the experience of this French port.
As proof, “we can bring the history of the city of Bordeaux and its port. A story marked by several stages where the port was in the heart of town, but he turned his back on the city. Then, the city reconquered part of its port area to open to its population and today, we are in a phase where the port must once again make sense in the city. The city has developed with the port and vice versa, “he said.
The challenges of the development and modernization of the port platform of Douala can find a favorable echo in the type of development of the port of Bordeaux, especially as “we are in a phase where after the city has reinvested a number of port lands, at the port to reinvest too and to offer to all Bordeaux work spaces, living in community.
Win-win partnership
The two port areas according to their leaders have many similarities, especially since they are both estuary ports in a large metropolis. In this context, the Director General of the Autonomous Port of Douala, Cyrus Ngo’o, has welcomed this rapprochement which should lead to a win-win partnership, especially as “Douala and Bordeaux have in common to be connected and open to the world. Their strategic position on the Atlantic seaboard makes them indispensable tools for the development and the influence of the cities and regions to which they belong, thus reinforcing their attractiveness “.
In 2018, nearly 12 million tons of goods were processed at the port of Douala. During the same period, 3306 ships, 1,059 vessels in international navigation and 2,247 ships in local navigation, passed through this port platform, which accounts for more than 90% of the country’s freight traffic and 80% of the volume of exports and imports. towards the Central African Republic and Chad, two neighboring countries with no coastline.
