Abidjan port seeks to win back landlocked clients

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Delegations of port users from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are on their second of a two- day visit at the invitation of the Abidjan Port Authority management in the Ivorian economic capital.
According to the port authority's Director General Marcel N'Gossio the tour by economic operators from the three countries was part of efforts to rehabilitate the facility's dented image.
Abidjan port operations have slowed down since the chaotic military transition period beginning December 1999 and the violence that occurred before and after the presidential elections.
Insecurity forced the port's traditional users in the landlocked states and ship owners to abandon Abidjan port, N'Gossio explained.
This drastically reduced transit goods towards these countries, which declined from 1,059,628 to 944.
971 tons.
The port users, whose visit ends Thursday are expected to have an audience with the Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan.
They were also scheduled to have several working sessions with the ministers of the interior and decentralisation, economic infrastructures and trade.