Mozambique: Maritime cabotage will start in 1st Quarter of 2020 – Minister of Transport and Communications

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Mozambique: Maritime cabotage will start in 1st Quarter of 2020 – Minister of Transport and Communications

4:13 CAT | 02 Dec 2019

Photo: A Verdade

Maritime cabotage [the movement of freight by sea along the coast] will start in the first quarter of 2020, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Carlos Mesquita announced last Friday, November 29. A company created for this purpose and co-owned by Transmarítima and French investors is on the process of identifying vessels which will operate the service, the minister revealed.

The revitalisation of maritime cabotage in the country aims to diversify available modes of transport, reducing transportation costs and lowering the price of goods to the final consumer.

Coastal shipping is also expected to improve agricultural marketing, accelerate industrialisation in areas near secondary and tertiary ports, and create business opportunities for local entrepreneurs.

Carlos Mesquita was speaking at the first graduation ceremony of the School of Nautical Sciences, a higher education institution supervised by the Ministry of Transport and Communications which has just finished training a total of 115 persons in maritime navigation, maritime law, computer systems programming and telecommunications, mechanical engineering, systems control, electronics and telecommunications engineering, maritime machine engineering, and ports economics and management.

Minister Mesquita’s speech urged the ‘Escola Superior de Ciências Náuticas’ to relaunch the full training of Merchant Navy officers to meet the challenges that the country will face in the near future, such as the supply of skilled labour to operate maritime cabotage vessels. and other major projects. “Investing in training is a fundamental step towards the sustainability of projects which will require naval officers,” he pointed out.

The modernisation of ports, the intensification of offshore oil activities and the exports of coal and heavy sands, among others, will intensify the need for replenishment logistics and operations management in the setting up of the production facilities of these goods and transport, alongside other operations, exponentially increasing the demand for highly skilled navy professionals, the minister said.

“These projects that the country is decisively implementing should be seen by the school’s management and by all those involved in the training of seafarers as an opportunity to establish partnerships to overcome the constraints currently facing the institution, namely the problem of availability of equipment such as simulators and floating units to complete the training of Nautical School cadets,” Minister Mesquita said.

The Minister of Transport and Communications expressed a desire to see the College of Nautical Sciences “train Navy officers ready to embark and work as crew members on national, regional and international ships, bearing in mind that the maritime industry is governed by conventions from the International Maritime Organisation.”

Ana Maria Alfredo, Director-General of the School of Nautical Sciences, said that the institution was currently seeking opportunities to obtain for its students the sea service time required for certification, by way of strategic partnerships with institutions operating in the transport and communications sector.

Source: A Verdade