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\u2013 The port situation within the framework of the AfCFTA\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
![\"Port_International_d'Owendo_\"](\"https:\/\/gabon.yearbook-media.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/elementor\/thumbs\/Port_International_dOwendo_-revtvy7rp7w7qn5hi7ryl2709t06irhpi175535s5e.jpg\" "\\"Owendo")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\tOfficially effective since January 2021, the AfCFTA agreement commits African countries to eliminating customs duties on 90% of the goods they produce. Gabon hopes to use this as a lever for growing its exports to Africa by leveraging the New Owendo International Port (NOIP).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The long-term ambition is to create an African common market of 1.3 billion consumers where products circulate and are exchanged without customs barriers in order to boost the development of member countries. Within this framework, intra-African trade is likely to increase by 52% and attract a significant flow of investments and opportunities to Gabon.
To attract more investors to Gabon, the New International Port of Owendo (NOIP) has implemented several strategies, including reducing service costs and acquiring a new storage area that will simplify transit activities (import\/export). This involves improved storage capacity that will help diversify the nature of the new port's activities, such as palm oil storage and wheat storage, the volume of which amounts to 10,500 tonnes. The objective of Arise P&L (a subsidiary of Olam) is to make Gabon an attractive center as a new storage hub in the port business in Africa.<\/p>\n
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Launched in 2017, the NOIP is a major tool for diversifying the Gabonese economy and should help reduce the country's dependence on oil revenues. Its implementation contributed to the slight increase (+2%) in stopover traffic and goods, which represented 49% of the revenue of the Gabonese Ports and Harbors Office (OPRAG) in 2019. Several major rivers cross Gabon, such as the Ogoou\u00e9, the Komo and the Nyanga. The Ogoou\u00e9 is the only direct means of access to the interior of the country from Port-Gentil to Lambar\u00e9n\u00e9 during low water periods, and crosses Gabon from east to west. <\/p>\n <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The activities that take place there are numerous: transport of people or by floating of logs, hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation activities, fishing, tourism, etc. The non-service of lagoons and rivers causes the surge in prices of food products. The abandonment of river and lagoon transport, due to the obsolescence of the navigation means of the state company CNNII, led to a mechanical decrease in the supply of agricultural products on the Port-Gentil markets and to a lengthening of the supply times of these same markets. On the Libreville-Port Gentil maritime line, the technical weaknesses, the irregularity of the traffic and the low competitiveness of the public waterway carrier, also prevent the exercise of technical regulation of the prices of goods transport.<\/span><\/p>\n