Fisheries and Aquaculture competitiveness in ACP countries will receive a strong boost from an Intra-ACP allocation of the European Development Fund (EDF) aimed at enhancing the key role that Fisheries and Aquaculture could play in social and economic development across African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
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Since 2013, fairtrade organizes agrofood & plastprintpack West Africa in Accra, Ghana. At the request of exhibitors and international associations, the 5th agrofood & plastprintpack West Africa will now for the first time be held in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast. The event is due on 20 to 22 November 2018 at the Radisson Blu Hotel Abidjan Airport. “After discussions with exhibitors and international associations we decided to bring the 5th agrofood & plastprintpack West Africa to Abidjan”, says Martin März, founder & managing partner at fairtrade.
Youth associations, public and private organizations announced back in March their support of a roadmap to empower youth in The Gambia. The Youth and Trade Roadmap, which has been developed as part of the International Trade Centre’s Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) with the support of the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, places skills development and entrepreneurship at the heart of a new effort to create jobs and opportunities in the West African country. Around 100 representatives from more than 40 organizations gathered in the Gambian capital, Banjul, for a workshop to assess and validate the Youth and Trade Roadmap.
As part of its mission to raise quality standards of fish in our country, the Ministry of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Maritime Economy, through the National Bureau for Sanitary Control of Fishery Products (ONSPA), this week handed over two ice-making factories and a cold storage facility to the Jasmin Trading House company, the only fish factory satisfying the required health standards during a recent visit by EU experts, with the aim of strengthening the company.
Today, the European Commission launched two new programmes to enhance security and boost the infrastructure development in the region. One support programme, worth €20 million, will improve the regional governance of key infrastructure such as road and air transport, energy, IT and communication. Removing infrastructure barriers in this way can increase currently limited trade capacities and reduce related instabilities.
Agri-Vie, a private investment fund focused on food and the food industry in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Norfund, the Norwegian investment fund for developing countries, have jointly invested $17 million in Marginpar Flower Group Holdings, a company specialised in the sale of flowers in East Africa. Herman Marais, the co-founder of Agri-Vie, which includes among its backers the private equity arm of South African insurer Sanlam, said the aim of the investment was to provide sustainable support for the growth of Marginpar, which operates in Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and even Zimbabwe.
EUR 12.5 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) coupled with EUR 5 million European Union (EU) grant to finance modernisation and enlargement of Seychelles’ main commercial harbour, Port Victoria. Agence Française de Développement (AFD) also to provide EUR 16.5 million loan to project. EUR 2 million worth of technical assistance will also be put at the disposal of the SPA. During a public ceremony held in the presence of H.E. Danny Faure, President of the Republic of the Seychelles, agreements were signed between the European Investment Bank, the European Union and the Seychelles Ports Authority to finance the rehabilitation and expansion of the commercial part of the Port Victoria harbour.
Caribbean development partners and beneficiaries of the Hub and Spokes Programme, an aid-for-trade initiative, began a regional planning workshop April 23–25 with appreciation of the programmes tangible impact on the ground. The workshop is being held at the Guyana Marriott Hotel Georgetown, Guyana. Caribbean country beneficiaries and advisers will work to develop a new framework that is likely to govern the implementation and management of a successor programme.