On 27 September 2024, AIVP member Port Autonome de Pointe-Noire (PAPN) held a Business Forum in Paris, organised in partnership with “Les Rendez-Vous d’Afrique(s)” and the French Council for Investors in Africa (CIAN). The aim of the event was to attract investors to support the development and growth of the PAPN. By promoting its status as a deepwater port and a maritime gateway to central Africa, along with its strategic role in the regional economy, the Port of Pointe-Noire hopes to establish itself as a vital logistics hub.
Bruno Delsalle, Managing Director of AIVP, took part in the round table discussion entitled ‘The ambitions of the Autonomous Port of Pointe-Noire’, alongside Séraphin Bhalat, Managing Director of PAPN, and Évelyne Tchichelle, Mayor of Pointe-Noire.
The debate highlighted several priorities for PAPN, including the importance of creating a multimodal corridor between Pointe-Noire and Brazzaville, restoring inland waterway transportation, and improving port infrastructures to optimise services to the hinterland. PAPN is also aiming to diversify its activities, including in the processing of raw materials from the Congo river basin. Through a combination of strategic investment and solid partnerships, the port wants to strengthen its position as the region’s leading transshipment hub and play a key role in the industrialisation of central Africa, while creating direct and indirect jobs to boost the local economy.
Bruno Delsalle emphasised that, over and above the spin-offs in terms of future investment, the day had shown that value creation was also environmental and societal. Here, cooperation between the city and the port comes into its own, and the city is reaping the benefits of the port’s role as a driving force in the area, while also banking on its maritime identity to diversify its maritime functions around yachting, tourism and culture. This territorial and multi-partner strategy is obviously in line with the challenges set out in the AIVP’s Agenda 2030, which the Port and the City of Pointe Noire have taken up with a real desire to move forward.
