Sea Highway Project links Tunisia to the North Mediterranean ports and simplifies Customs procedures
The EU-funded sea highway project in Tunisia enters within the framework of opening the local economy to the outside. Of one-year duration, its execution period will end at the beginning of 2010.
Samira Sadafi - Tunisia, Al-Hayat
The project beneficiary, the Tunisia Sailing Company, which is affiliated to the public sector, will be focusing its efforts on improving profitability, simplifying customs procedures when controlling goods, and adopting a single administrative entity at the port to rapidly complete the procedures and reduce costs at all transportation stages. It is also expected to reduce the length of stay of the goods in the Rades Port (the country’s main commercial port) from seven to three days. This also includes the use of new communication technology at sea for the follow-up of ships and goods, and the development of a more advanced search system than the current one (since November 2007).
Let us imagine a truck leaving the industrial area in Suleiman south of the Tunisian capital or the Mghira region west of the capital and heading towards the Rades port, loaded with goods. Its driver rapidly completes the customs procedures before crossing a bridge over the Mediterranean to the port of Marseilles or Genoa, then to Northern Europe. The objective of the sea highway project is not much different than this imaginary scenario, as it aims to reduce by more than half the waiting period for completing port procedures. The Rades port attracts most of the Tunisian commercial exchanges with the outside, and commercial ships of multiple nationalities anchor at the docks, which passersby can see from the suspended bridge linking the cities of Rades (south of the capital) to Halq al Wadi (northern suburb).
Tunisians give great importance to modernizing work procedures at the port because of its pivotal role in the country’s economy. In this context, it was agreed with the European Union to execute a project aiming at improving the complete transportation services at the port, ensuring the safety of imported/exported goods, and ensuring the continuity of the work. This sea highway project is the first project of its kind that is executed, among 12 similar projects that were submitted to the EU in the fall of 2007 and summer of 2008. The project enables a simplified manner to welcome the containers coming from local factories in all sectors and ensure their transportation from the factory door in Tunisia to the client’s door in Europe without any stop or obstacles. The project will primarily benefit the factories that promote their goods immediately, without storing them. The containers cross the Mediterranean on ships from Rades to the ports of Marseilles (south of France) and Genoa (northwest of Italy), before being transported by land to European cities.
Simplification of procedures
AbdulNabi bin Saeed, a director at the Tunisia Sailing Company (public sector) and the project coordinator, stated that the project’s execution enters within the opening of the local economy to the outside. He added that the company will focus its efforts on improving profitability, simplifying customs procedures when controlling the goods, and adopting a single administrative entity at the port to rapidly complete the procedures and reduce costs at all transportation stages. It is also expected to reduce the length of stay of the goods in the Rades Port (the country’s main commercial port) from seven to three days. This also includes the use of new communication technology at sea for the follow-up of ships and goods, and the development of a more advanced search system than the current one (since November 2007). These developments aim to serve the private sector and modernize ports in view of implementing “smart transportation”.
As for Jameel Atallah, a specialist in geoeconomy and in charge of the follow-up of the project, he assured that its execution will lead to the adoption of food safety international standards (ISO 22000) and environmental management (ISO 14000), and their use in all companies working in the transportation sector. A significant part of the project depends on the transfer of experience through training sessions for local staff in all branches of marine transport by European experts as well as the improvement of services in order to face the increasing market needs.
Moreover, the project will give Tunisians the opportunity to get acquainted with the experiences of other Mediterranean countries in this field, like Turkey, and work on building partnerships with them for developing horizontal cooperation among Mediterranean countries. This is one of the pillars of the Union for the Mediterranean, according to Massimo Mina, at the EU Delegation in Tunisia. He also said that this project aims to equip Tunisia with a modern information system that would replace the current obsolete one.
Energy control
The project also involves strengthening the efforts of local transport companies for energy control, as the technical maintenance of the fleet of ships will be accompanied by a constant follow-up of the energy consumption indicators, and the use of mechanisms and equipment in the docks. Moreover, the partnership with the EU will be reinforced through the establishment of information service companies specialized in the transport of passengers within the framework of the partnership between the Tunisia Sailing Company and its French counterpart, in addition to the opening of two commercial offices in Marseilles and Genoa. The establishment of the company and the development of the transport of goods will help face the increasing challenges imposed by globalization that have been reflected in the increased number of passengers and containers during the past years. In his speech at the “Marine Transport… a Link between the Sides of the Mediterranean” conference, Tunisian Minister of Transport Abdul Rahim Zouari said that the investment plan set by Tunisia for modernizing the sector in 2008-2011 includes the purchase of a new 3000-passenger and 1000-vehicle ship in addition to two ships for carrying goods.
In the same context, AbdulNabi bin Saeed explained that Tunisia is hoping that the sea highway project will help it improve its competitive abilities on both the regional and international levels and increase the participation of private or public local fleets in carrying passengers and goods from 9% today to 20% by 2016. Also, Tunisians are hoping that the sector’s rehabilitation will help attract investments, create new job opportunities, and fully comply with the marine safety standards. Based on Tunisia’s strategic location in the Mediterranean where it overlooks the Strait of Sicily, which divides the Mediterranean into an eastern and a western basin, the modernization of the marine transport sector will constitute a focal point in restoring other economic sectors in order to adapt with globalization and additional opening to European economies for attracting foreign investments.
Great, awesome! It's a necessary move to push bilateral trade forward! Undeniably, there's a lot of well-established corporate in Tunisia that will benefit greatly from this long-awaited Sea Highway, and it will encourage younger enterprises to expand their businesses and enhance their inter-continental operations. Moreover, this project will boost the settlement of outsourced European companies in our country which will help create new jobs! However, do you know that the ordinary Tunisian citizen still can't get an international MasterCard from his bank and make an international purchase on the internet? We need to fix this too.
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I would like to be brief and thank Europa Jaratona program for its achievments in Jordan.
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It is good to hear that there is someone who really cares about our historical monuments. While reading the article, I was hoping to find so many Tunisian names to make sure that, also, in our country there are people who are hell-bent on preserving what is left of a glorious history. Tunisia, thanks to its location, welcomed many civilizations whose leaders built huge and glorious buildings. Not only in cities near the shores, but also in the far west cities like Sbitla, Kasserin...
I believe that in order to save the surviving monuments, there should be a campaign to make Tunisians aware of the significance of such a loss if those buildings become ruins.
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I have read this article with cautious and i was not happy of the approaches being written due i guess to lack of real understanding of current environmental issues we are facing. The problem of pollution will not be tackled only through fundings bec most of the money used is not appropriately used and if ever used we seek the traditional methods the old fashion way. We need to look at alternatives , less costs , better and more sustainable output. Waste problems are derived from mass consumerism and lack of understanding of what our lives should mean to us as far as human values and choices we should take in life. Building waste water treatment is needed but what is more needed is eduation and awereness and return to ethics and values. We can keep dumping money on projects but who would assure me that our resources are being well taken care of and not depleted in a fast way? Where is the concept of sustainibility?
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A project like this makes the two continents closer, let alone the two banks of the Mediterranean Sea. The customers in the south bank of the sea are not feeling the shortage of products that are in the north bank and vice versa. Most of the Mediterranean inhabitants are isolated because of the shortage of roads and projects in the field should be welcomed and supported because they push the inhabitant to self development. Thanks for the initiative and we hope for the coming of more.