Create environment to facilitate trade - African govts urged
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA), Ms Benonita Bismarck, has asked African governments to create a congenial business environment to facilitate trade and help boost industrialisation effort on the continent.She explained that they should focus on transparent laws, fairness in border agency decisions, streamlined clearance procedures and reduction in administrative constraints on transit trade.
Advertisement
Ms Bismarck, who mentioned this at the opening of the eighth African Shippers’ Day in Accra, said governments needed to strike a good balance between revenue generation and trade facilitation.
The three days conference was on the theme; Trade Facilitation and its impact on Africa’s Industrialisation.”
Read Also: More than 200 vehicles stranded at Yeji as a result of closure of Yapei, Buipe bridges
The CEO observed that the concept of the Shippers’ Day adopted by the Union of African Shippers' Councils (UASC) was primarily to celebrate the efforts and achievements of importers and exporters in propelling trade and development in the sub-region.
She said the conference could be seen as a platform for interaction among primary players in the international trade and transport chain, including exporters and importers, ship owners, port authorities, freight forwarders and other ancillary services.
Concerted effort
She called for concerted effort and collaboration with well-thought out strategies in dealing with the challenges facing shippers in Africa. Some include the multiplicity of agencies in the cargo clearance process, ineffective risk management systems and so on.
She stated that an approximate mix of a thriving international trade within a well-tuned economic policy framework, would speed up the industrialisation process and consequently, the overall economic development of countries within the continent.
Other Trending Stories
“We are glad to note that the cause of the shippers are gradually graining currency worldwide as the realisation is dawning on all that the shippers are the reason ships sail.
At the global level, the Global Shippers’ Forum (GSF), whose membership includes the UASC, has instituted a major advocacy programme to promote the cause of shippers throughout the world.
Without the shipper, there would be no need for merchant ships and, therefore, the shipper must have the pride of place in our discourse on trade facilitation and industrialisation efforts,” he said.
She was, however, optimistic that the coming into force of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)-Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) would continue to bring to the fore the obligations on the part of governments in creating a congenial environment for businesses to thrive.
“The coming into force of the trade agreement this year has brought to the fore the obligations on our government to create a conducive environment,” he added.