"It is a very interesting global project"

  • Sir, CAMSHIP announces the start of a maritime cabotage service next week between the ports of Kribi and Douala. What is it actually about?

This is the deployment of the operations of a partner shipowner of the shipping companies already berthing at the Port of Kribi, who can finalise the main transport of goods between Kribi and Douala. Until now, due to the lack of a shipping company and vessels that could do this final routing, goods going to Douala were transhipped to Pointe Noire. From now on, thanks to the operation that CAMSHIP CLGG is announcing, we will be able to have this transhipment via the Port of Kribi in order to reach the Port of Douala. It is a great credit to the development of maritime transport in Cameroon.

  • At the same time, a joint decision by PAK and PAD set up a project team to organise a cabotage service. Is there not an overlap with the deployment of the CAMSHIP CLGG?

Absolutely not! Both projects are not identical. Cabotage in the customs sense, as expected from the PAK/PAD project team, is the maritime transport of CEMAC goods to another CEMAC territory. Thus, one leaves from one CEMAC port to another CEMAC port. The idea here is to set up a maritime partnership, that can promote the inter-State transport of goods and, of course, take advantage of the transhipment traffic that passes through the Port of Kribi to reach Douala. This will eventually provide the opportunity to set up small ships that can perfectly operate in Douala, and thus take advantage of the infrastructures and flows of containers arriving through the Port of Kribi. In short, this is a very interesting global project, which can allow the rebirth of a Cameroonian maritime and coastal transport company, which would be welcome under the current development of volumes in Kribi.

  • Is passenger transport considered in these various projects?

I do not know exactly the project team’s work, but I can say that as concerns PAK, we are thinking about developing passenger transport, with a view to setting up pleasure and tourist traffic for the beautiful city of Kribi. Regarding operations between the two Ports of Kribi and Douala, this issue could indeed be raised, with a study that would help to establish the relevance of the proposal.