March 2014 English - Borderless Alliance
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1 Borderless Alliance News, March 2014 On March 11, 2014, Borderless Alliance, under the USAID To- wards Inclusive Markets Everywhere Annual Program State- ment (TIME APS), organized a joint technical meeting for bor- der officials and other trade, transport and logistics industry practitioners drawn mainly from the Elubo and Noé borders to harmonize activities at the borders. The meeting follows a study on transport and logistics costs con- ducted by USAID West Africa Trade Hub on the Tema – Ouagadougou corridor, which was meant to docu- ment procedures, costs and delays based on the experiences of traders who use the said corridor. Participants were drawn from the Ghana Shippers’ Authority, Ghana Customs, Ghana Immigration Ser- vice, Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, and BIVAC Inter- national Ghana Limited. Others were from the Ivorian Shippers’ Office, Phyto-sanitary Services, the Ivorian Customs, the Ivorian Freight Forwarders Association, Observatoire de la Fluidité des Transports and the Côte d’Ivoire National Facilitation Commit- tee. Issues discussed include the prospects of aligning and extending the working hours at the two borders and also identifying other important barriers to trade and transport along the corridor and, thus, guide transport infrastructure investments and procedural reforms. The Borderless Alliance team later presented the recommendations and observations to the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana National Facilitation Committees, which are composed of both gov- ernmental organizations and private sector institutions, with the mandate to implement reforms. At a meeting with the Ivorian National Facili- tation Committee in Abidjan, Mr. Vaffi KONE, President of CSCRAO, the apex Road Drivers’ Union in West Africa, bemoaned the numerous problems at the Noé border. “I work closely with the Ivorian Shippers’ Council and I have witnessed so many problems which inhibit trade at the Noé bor- der. There is the need for immediate measures to eliminate these problems at the border,” he said. IN-TRANSIT March 2014 ⇒ Borderless Alliance initiates programs to harmonize working hours at the borders ⇒ ECOWAS signs MOU with Borderless Alliance ⇒ Borderless Alliance participates in door-to-door container services work- shop ⇒ Regional workshop held to validate recommendations on food across borders The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Borderless Alliance have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on creating a borderless, peaceful, prosperous and cohesive West Africa region. Even though, for some time now, ECOWAS and Border- less Alliance have been working closely on facilitating trade in the region, with the former financing some of the activities, the MoU is to formally establish a framework for cooperation between the two institutions to promote trade and private sector competitiveness. Areas of cooperation between the two bodies include four broad domains: promotion of private sector competitive- ness, investment and regional trade in member states; identification of corridor trade and transport performance and the provision of evidence to enhance decision making in regional transport and trade improvements and advo- cacy; identification of gaps in the implementation of pri- vate sector and trade related Community Protocols and Policies by Member States and relevant stakeholders with the aim to enhance competitive- ness in regional trade and busi- ness as well as strengthen re- gional integration and free movement; and any other related areas or sectors as may be agreed between the parties to support the achievement of the “ECOWAS of People” vision. The Executive Secretary of the Borderless Alliance, Mr. Justin Bayili, lauded the efforts of both bodies and said the signing of the MoU could not have come at a better time. “Borderless Alliance shares in ECOWAS vision of ‘free movement of goods and persons’ in the West Africa re- gion. This MoU will reinforce the Alliance’s position to champion this vision in order to rid the region of trade barriers,” he said. ECOWAS SIGNS MOU WITH BORDERLESS ALLIANCE BORDERLESS ALLIANCE INITIATES PROGRAMS TO HARMONIZE WORKING HOURS AT THE BORDERS
Transcript of March 2014 English - Borderless Alliance
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Borderless Alliance News, March 2014
On March 11, 2014, Borderless Alliance, under the USAID To-wards Inclusive Markets Everywhere Annual Program State-ment (TIME APS), organized a joint technical meeting for bor-der officials and other trade, transport and logistics industry practitioners drawn mainly from the Elubo and Noé borders to harmonize activities at the borders. The meeting follows a study on transport and logistics costs con-ducted by USAID West Africa Trade Hub on the Tema – Ouagadougou corridor, which was meant to docu-ment procedures, costs and delays based on the experiences of traders who use the said corridor. Participants were drawn from the Ghana Shippers’ Authority, Ghana Customs, Ghana Immigration Ser-vice, Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, and BIVAC Inter-national Ghana Limited. Others were from the Ivorian Shippers’ Office, Phyto-sanitary Services, the Ivorian Customs, the Ivorian Freight Forwarders Association, Observatoire de la Fluidité des Transports and the Côte d’Ivoire National Facilitation Commit-tee.
Issues discussed include the prospects of aligning and extending the working hours at the two borders and also identifying other important barriers to trade and transport along the corridor and, thus, guide transport infrastructure investments and procedural reforms.
The Borderless Alliance team later presented the recommendations and observations to the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana National Facilitation Committees, which are composed of both gov-ernmental organizations and private sector institutions, with the mandate to implement reforms. At a meeting with the Ivorian National Facili-tation Committee in Abidjan, Mr. Vaffi KONE, President of CSCRAO, the apex Road Drivers’ Union in West Africa, bemoaned the numerous problems at the Noé border.
“I work closely with the Ivorian Shippers’ Council and I have witnessed so many problems which inhibit trade at the Noé bor-der. There is the need for immediate measures to eliminate these problems at the border,” he said.
IN-TRANSIT March 2014
⇒ Borderless Alliance initiates programs to harmonize working hours at the borders ⇒ ECOWAS signs MOU with Borderless Alliance ⇒ Borderless Alliance participates in door-to-door container services work-
shop ⇒ Regional workshop held to validate recommendations on food across
borders
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Borderless Alliance have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on creating a borderless, peaceful, prosperous and cohesive West Africa region. Even though, for some time now, ECOWAS and Border-less Alliance have been working closely on facilitating trade in the region, with the former financing some of the activities, the MoU is to formally establish a framework for cooperation between the two institutions to promote trade and private sector competitiveness. Areas of cooperation between the two bodies include four broad domains: promotion of private sector competitive-ness, investment and regional trade in member states; identification of corridor trade and transport performance and the provision of evidence to enhance decision making in regional transport and trade improvements and advo-cacy; identification of gaps in the implementation of pri-vate sector and trade related Community Protocols and Policies by Member States and relevant stakeholders with
the aim to enhance competitive-ness in regional trade and busi-ness as well as strengthen re-gional integration and free movement; and any other related areas or sectors as may be agreed between the parties to support the achievement of the “ECOWAS of People” vision.
The Executive Secretary of the Borderless Alliance, Mr. Justin Bayili, lauded the efforts of both bodies and said the signing of the MoU could not have come at a better time. “Borderless Alliance shares in ECOWAS vision of ‘free movement of goods and persons’ in the West Africa re-gion. This MoU will reinforce the Alliance’s position to champion this vision in order to rid the region of trade barriers,” he said.
ECOWAS SIGNS MOU WITH BORDERLESS ALLIANCE
BORDERLESS ALLIANCE INITIATES PROGRAMS TO HARMONIZE WORKING HOURS AT THE BORDERS
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Borderless Alliance News, March 2014
BORDERLESS ALLIANCE PARTICIPATES IN
DOOR-TO-DOOR CONTAINER SERVICES
WORKSHOP
Following a recommenda-tion from a Translog Sym-posium, a bi-annual trans-port and logistics event or-ganized in 2012, a second follow-up workshop, in which Borderless Alliance participated, was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from March 20 – 21, 2014, to assess progress in the implementation of the recommendation. The two-day workshop, which served as a platform to develop a strategy to pro-mote the use of door-to-door container services by land-locked countries in West Africa, was organized by the Burkinabe Shippers’ Coun-cil (CBC), in collaboration with the Union of African Shippers’ Councils (UASC) and the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA). The event brought together more than 100 participants from West Africa and Chad, including representatives from the security forces, Shippers’ Councils, the SSATP/World Bank, Ports of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo. Key issues discussed in-clude: Container deposits and demurrage; road trans-port costs and Direct Bill of Lading; container terminal
operations and port infra-structure; professionaliza-tion of the transport sector; and Borderless Alliance membership drive. Mr. Ali Traoré, Director General of the Burkinabe Shippers’ Council, sees the containerization as both a problem and a solution. “The Door-to-Door con-tainer delivery is a major bottleneck in the region; meanwhile, it has many benefits,” he said. In order to promote the con-cept of containerization, participants agreed to deal with such challenges as the high costs of deposit to shipping lines, which are unattractive to the general importing public in the locked countries; and ports delays in the region, which decrease the lay days of containers and increase the risk of demurrage. Follow-up activities include: a West African regional transport observatory meet-ing to be held in Ouagadou-gou on 8-9 April, 2014; an international symposium on transport and logistics, dubbed Translog 2014 to be held on 7-9 October; and the inclusion of Borderless Alliance in a technical team on Containerization for landlocked countries.
The Borderless Alliance participated in a regional workshop to validate recom-mendations on the imple-mentation of food across border policy, held in Coto-nou, Benin, from March 28 – 31, 2014. Organized by Hub Rural under the auspices of the Economic Community of West Afr ican States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), and financed by the United States Agency for Interna-t i o n a l D e v e l o p m e n t (USAID), the workshop brought together about 50 participants from across the region. These include repre-
sentatives from USAID West Africa Mission, ECOWAS, West Africa Trade Hub Networks, Cana-dian Corporation, The Neth-erlands Directorate General for International Coopera-tion (DGIS), the Interna-tional Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Oxfam, the Permanent Intestate Committee for the Control of Drought in the Sahel (CILSS), Producer Associa-tions Networks and Civil Society Organizations. In recognition of the efforts of Borderless Alliance, ECOWAS tasked the Alli-
ance to be a key implemen-ter of a strategic watch on the free movement of agri-cultural products in the West Africa region. In a plenary session, Dr. Candace Buzzard, the USAID’s Regional Agricul-ture Director in charge of West Africa, underscored the importance of looking at food security from a wider perspective. “Food security must be re-gional rather than national. Through food security, there will be accelerated eco-nomic development that will, in turn, reduce poverty in the region,” she said.
The Borderless Alliance will follow up on the fol-lowing activities: dissemi-nation of Benin Government decree on reducing check-points; production of Benin Truck Drivers’ Guide; and collaboration with Commu-nal Approach to Agricul-tural market Access in Be-nin.
REGIONAL WORKSHOP HELD TO VALIDATE
RECOMMENDATIONS ON FOOD ACROSS
BORDERS
Borderless Alliance Jubilee House, 4th Street, Kuku
Hill, Osu, Accra, Ghana
Tel: +233 302 762696/ 762935 Email: [email protected] Website: www.borderlesswa.com
