As part of the study to identify and map potential projects on the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville-Kinshasa-Bangui corridor, a mission of experts mandated by the European Union (EU) held a working session on January 29 with the general management of the Autonomous Port of Pointe-Noire.
Led by Jean-Marc Gauthier, head of mission, expert in regional transport infrastructure, the expert mission came to gather ideas from the port administration’s managers, in particular those aimed at understanding the current difficulties in operating the transport corridor and proposing projects likely to be integrated into the new European Global Gateway mechanism to contribute to its revitalization and the development of trade between Congo, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the EU.
Speaking with the experts, Séraphin Bhalat, Director General of the Autonomous Port of Pointe-Noire, welcomed the arrival of this mission: “We are therefore pleased with this mission which comes as if to boost the ideas we have a little. As far as we are concerned, we have a 2022-2026 strategic plan which provides for precisely these aspects, by focusing on the corridors without which the port would not have its purpose. Today, 80% of our traffic is transhipment and therefore 20% in transit but we want to try to improve this trend by ensuring that transit takes a larger share, therefore by improving other modes of transport: rail, river… We are targeting, as planned in your study, the DRC and the CAR and why not go further to regain the traffic we had before”, he indicated.
After the interviews, Jean-Marc Gauthier, in turn, stressed: ” We were asked to study the possibility of revitalizing the corridor between Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville-Kinshasa and Bangui. It is a corridor that worked perfectly well, a few decades ago, and which slowly fell in favor of another Douala-Bangui, particularly road. The purpose of our visit to the port of Pointe-Noire was to collect ideas because it is the main port on the Atlantic coast, to relaunch, revitalize the transport of goods, whether bulk, containers between Bangui and the North of the DRC.”
The head of the mission added: “The key is undoubtedly the river between Brazzaville and Bangui, that is to say the Congo section, the Oubangui section. This section is less and less navigable. We absolutely must find ways and means to redress all this and the port has an important role to play in revitalising this corridor. There is already one problem that we can consider as resolved, it is the revitalisation of the port itself which is not to be doubted. We are arriving in front of an efficient infrastructure and now it is the next step, in particular evacuation by rail, by road, by waterway .
He concluded that the discussions with the general director of the port and his entire team were very instructive because the mission gathered several ideas.
