MIAMI PORT WELCOMED A DELEGATION OF ABIDJAN PORT AUTHORITY

Visite de travail Wednesday 14 August 2024

The cooperation and benchmarking mission which Started in New Orleans extended, on Wednesday 12 June 2024, to Miami Port where the African ports’ actors including Abidjan Port Authority led by its Managing Director, Mr Hien Yacouba SIÉ, have been received by Seaboard Marine Group and Miami's Port Authorities.

Miami Port maintains cooperation agreements with 18 African ports including Abidjan Port Authority with which it signed a twinning agreement. This indicates the total willingness of Miami Dade County to develop close relations with the African Continent.

The naval Port of Miami, located in the city's business area, greatly contributes to the vitality of the region - Every year, about 900 cargoships call at the Port and over one million TEU’s accounting for $ 47 billion are generated. As the deepest Port in the South of the United States, Miami Port ,is equipped with infrastructure and connected to the eastern part of the country thanks to a railway network and one of world's highest density multimodal transport system.

In order to get a better acquaintance of this Port, a tour of Miami Port's facilities had been organized and enabled, in the process, to evaluate the location of Seaboard Marine Group, a major operator on the platform.

However, trade with the African Continent remains very low (1%) as against 48% for Latin America and the caribbeans, 31% for Asia and 20% for Europe and the Mediterranean.

Regardless this fact, the cruise traffic remains very promising and was emphasized during the talks. Thus, with more than1100 cruise ships calling in Miami Port every year, and 3.6 million passengers in transit through its canal, the City of Miami ranks first as a cruise destination in the world. This representing a major asset that the Miami Port’s Authorities agree to share with the Port Authorities present so as to further promote this growing traffic in the ports of the West African Coast.

"We are willing to receive new ideas and initiatives from our partners. This is one of the reasons why such meetings are important for the development of cooperation "  the Miami Port's Authorities declared.

Note that for over one year, Abidjan Port has been experiencing an exponential development of cruise traffic on its port platform, with the calling of many big vessels.

This is an indication of the quality of the reception infrastructure at Abidjan Port in this regard, and the tourist  attractions offered by Côte d'Ivoire's destination.