Africa-Press – Angola. The Port of Luanda seeks, within its “Master Plan”, to develop actions that allow it to reach an annual movement of 36 million tons of cargo, announced yesterday, in Luanda, the administrator for the Commercial Area, Management and Information Technologies, Miguel Kite.
In 2021, the cargo handled by the Luanda port company reached 14 million 229 thousand tons, an increase of 19 percent compared to 2020, when it handled close to 12 million tons. In 2020, 3,878 long-haul ships docked at the Port of Luanda, 41 fewer ships (one percent) compared to last year’s movement.
Within 18 years (in 2040), the management of the Port of Luanda wants to complete all the actions foreseen in its “Master Plan”, in progress since 2020. Miguel Pipa, who was speaking to the press on the sidelines of the ninth Advisory Board of the public company, referred that, within the scope of the implementation of the “Master Plan”, actions are foreseen that tend to the harmonious development and modernization of the main port of the country.
Among the actions, he added, is the construction of a Cruise Terminal, of a naval shipyard, as well as the maritime area must go from the current depth, from 12.5 meters, to 16 meters. “The Master Plan” also provides for the assembly of state-of-the-art technological equipment, which must efficiently handle the loading and unloading of goods.
For Miguel Pipa, the “Master Plan” aims to make the port more competitive, either nationally, regionally and internationally, and to increase institutional capacity to take greater advantage of the national maritime potential. “We are going to work, in the sense that the infrastructure is ready, to make the loads from neighboring countries come through here, as a result of its efficiency, in terms of handling”, he said.
The plan for the Port of Luanda began to be implemented in 2020, and is expected to end in almost 21 years, said the administrator, stressing that, among the various actions to be carried out over the period, some initiative is already underway. , as is the case with the VTs System.
Among the actions to be implemented, there is the “VTs System”, which is a service module to support maritime navigation, which allows greater navigation safety in the Bay of Luanda and in the area of jurisdiction of the Port. there is the digitization program, which aims to simplify the documental process for the authorization of the exit of goods, something that has already shown benefits, as a result of the intensive use of information technologies. “10 years ago, this process was handled within five days , but today, the document processing is done in just one day”, he said.
The area of jurisdiction of the Port of Luanda begins at Farol da Ilha do Cabo (Ilha de Luanda) and ends at Farol das Lagostas, with the proposal being that it extends to the mouth of the Dande River. The ninth Port of Luanda Advisory Council, which lasted almost four hours, discussed, among other topics, the new development plan for the Port of Luanda, spoke about the challenges of digitizing the institution and the security system.
The presentation of the “Master Plan” was the moment that aroused the most debate, with an audience made up of deputies, members of the Executive and shipping and freight forwarders associations and representatives of official dispatchers.
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