France maritime investors eye Ghana’s ports

A business delegation from French company, HAROPA, has met Ghanaian maritime companies in order to present transport and logistics solution offers available to and from the Seine gateway for efficient service delivery.

The decision for the HAROPA, an alliance of ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris, team to invest in Ghana is based on the country’s ownership of huge assets, political stability, its well-developed legal framework and the good level of infrastructures, company officials said.

The delegation presented varied solutions aimed to ensure efficiency in Ghanaian ports in terms of conventional transport, containers, roll-on/roll-off and break-bulk.

The meeting drew in ship-owners, shipping agents, shippers, traders and freight forwarders, a move seen as a step to reinforce HAROPA’s African partnerships and make available their world class services on the river Seine corridor.

Mr Philippe Dehays, President of Rouen Port Employers’ Association described Accra as one of the most dynamic cities in Africa, which ought not to be missed, a destination for HAROPA.

He said the visit would help afford the opportunity to foster and develop a strong relation between the port communities in Ghana and France to provide effective and efficient services to clients.

He also highlighted the need for the port complex to develop relationships with Anglophone countries, and principally Ghana, “a country with a lot of assets, among which are the political stability, the developed legal framework and a good level of infrastructures.”

He said ports were at the centre of African economies, with more than 90 per cent of the trade on the continent being carried out by sea, and expressed the company’s desire to become a solid partner with their Ghanaian counterparts to optimize bilateral transport costs and to address the challenges in the sector.

The Ambassador of France to Ghana, Mr François Pujolas, said environment and sustainable development were key stakes for all countries in the world, and referred to the upcoming Paris Conference on Climate Change due in December.

He referred to the recent adoption of Sustainable Development goals at the United Nations and the need to highlight excellence, proven by HAROPA Port Complex, elected as the best green port in the world.

Mr Pujolas said over the past years the interest of French companies that wish to do business in Ghana has been growing steadily due to strong economic ties between the two countries.

He noted that high-level exchanges between France and Ghana in recent times gave priority to strengthening the economic cooperation culminating in investors seeking to do business in the country.

HAROPA, the 5th largest port complex in Northern Europe, is a joint venture between the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris.

It is connected to every continent, owing to a first-rate international shipping offer - with connections to 600 ports worldwide - the "one-stop" hub forms a global transport and logistics system, capable of providing a comprehensive end-to-end service.

HAROPA handles over 120 million tons of cargo by sea and waterway each year and its business represents 160,000 jobs.

The company is prided to give best transit times, maritime offer, fast cocoa road to Europe and pledged to deliver multipurpose port for Ghana as it seeks to also offer new sustainable transport solutions for Ghanaian products export.

On 24 June 2015, the stakeholders of the supply chain in the Asia-Pacific zone appointed HAROPA as the Best Green Port in the world.

Officials say the environmental commitment of HAROPA is focused on the development of consolidated modes and multi-modality as well as encouraging efficient initiatives to fight against climate change and warming.