The investors drawn from Japan, India, France and the United Kingdom visited the port on Wednesday and were received by the Managing Director Ms. Catherine Mturi Wairi at Bandari College.
The MD took the investors through a presentation on the development journey of the port over the years from a traditional small harbor facility to a modern international port.
“I am glad to note that for the last ten years or so the Kenya Ports Authority has initiated and implemented development programmes geared towards making the port of Mombasa stand out among the well performing ports globally,” said the managing director.
The MD explained to the visitors the key projects being undertaken at the port including the development of the second phase of the Second Container Terminal, facilitating development of Free Trade Zones near the Port, beefing up security, further dredging of the channel to accommodate bigger ships and the development of a second commercial sea port at Lamu as some of the initiatives aimed to improving efficiency and serve the regional economies.
“The port has seen a continued growth in container traffic and overall throughput.
Over the last three years, the Port has consistently handled over one million TEUs thus enabling Mombasa to feature in the global map of top container Ports.
Last year, the port handled 1.091 million TEUs and the overall throughput grew by 2.4 per cent to post a best-ever performance of 27.36 million tons, against a backdrop of slower than expected global and regional economic growth,” she added.
Mrs. Mturi- Wairi highlighted acquisition of the state of the art marine and cargo handling equipment, development and implementation of a comprehensive ICT strategy, increased customer service orientation through regular stakeholder meetings, introduction of 24/7 working schedule and involvement of private sector in some of the operations as some of the efforts the Authority had put in place to enhance efficiency.
According to the Business Mission Leader Mr. Selji Okada, Deputy Director General African Affairs Department, Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau and International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the mission had 48 companies from Japan, 10 from India, nine from France and five from the UK.
Okada expressed contentment on the commitment by the Kenya Government in infrastructural development citing the access roads at the Port of Mombasa as an example.
He said the investors’ visit is a follow-up of the bilateral agreement between Kenya and Japan during the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) for the development of the Special Economic Zones in Mombasa (Dongo Kundu).
“During the meeting one of the issues discussed was diversifying the economy of Africa – how to work with the private sector for the development of Africa.
“We are working with the private sector on how to implement the agreement,” Okada said.
He described the visit as a very important step forward noting the public sector both from the Japan and Kenyan side need to do a number of things including listening to the private sector on how to develop the Special Economic Zones.
Japanese Ambassador to Kenya H.E Toshitsugu Uesawa, High Commissioner of India Her Excellency, Suchitra Durai, Economic Advisor Office of the President Dr. Eric Aligula, County Government of Mombasa Director of Investment Ms. Swabra Abdulrahaman and the Chairman Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Mombasa Chapter) Mr. James Mureu were present during the meeting.
The KPA Managing Director was accompanied by General Managers Eng. Joseph Atonga (Engineering Services), Mr. Sudi Mwasinago (Operations) and Mr. Edward Kamau (Corporate Services).
Source: Coast Week

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