Ghana urgently requires comprehensive and pragmatic policies on maritime trade and maritime transport if it is to achieve competitiveness in the burgeoning shipping sector, Dr. Kofi Mbiah, Chief Executive, Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA) has said. “While we have seen tremendous growth in maritime activity over the past decade, the absence of focused policies is undermining the safe, reliable and cost effective delivery of cargo,” Mbiah said. Statistics from the Ministry of Trade and Industry show that over 90 percent of Ghana’s trade by volume is maritime based. Notably too, over 70 percent of government’s internal revenue is sourced from activities in the maritime sub-sector. “Currently, we experience persistent congestions at our ports due to a lack of adequate berthing space in the water, resulting in long queues of vessels, while on land poor storage and transport infrastructure compound delays caused by the slow process of scanning cargo at the ports,” Mbiah said. Dr. Mbiah made these observations at the third annual series of GSA’s Maritime Seminar for Media Practitioners, which aims at updating journalists’ knowledge on contemporary developments in the country’s maritime transport sector and its structure and dynamics. Minister of Transport, Alhaji Collins Dauda, addressing the seminar, noted the importance of the maritime sub-sector to the country’s socio-economic development, both in terms of trade volumes and revenue to government and more especially, as the nascent oil and gas sector is also maritime based. “Rising volumes of cargo passing through the ports and its attendant congestion has contributed to the proliferation of charges at the ports thereby considerably increasing the cost of doing business,” Alhaji Dauda said. He noted that the country’s maritime sector has, over the last decade, seen a number of developments including improvement in port infrastructure, development of off-dock terminals and storage facilities, the provision of an electronic platform for the clearance of cargo, and the commencement of expansion works at the Takoradi port to support the emerging oil and gas sector. Available statistics indicate that total cargo traffic for 2011 amounted to 17.9 million tons, registering an increase of over 25 percent from the 2010 figures. The half year performance for 2012 gives strong indications of an overall annual cargo traffic increase in excess of 20 percent over 2011 figures. Alhaji Dauda disclosed that government has initiated a move with the China Development Bank (CDB) to source funding for further expansion of the ports, which would include deepening of the draughts of the berths, acquisition of tug-boats, security patrol boats and reach stackers to improve port operations, as well as the development of new empty container yards outside the port; all in the bid to reduce current congestions at the port. He also indicated that the Ministry of Transport is seeking to work with parliament to pass appropriate regulations that will mandate the GSA to work with other stakeholders to achieve the competitiveness that shippers’ desire. Alhaji Dauda observed it is a sad commentary that despite the significant role played by maritime trade and transport in the country’s socio-economic development, the curricular of public media training institutions, including Ghana Institute of Journalism and School of Communications Studies at the University of Ghana do not have any specialized fields of study in maritime trade and transport. The minister urged the various sectors under the Ministry of Transport, including aviation, road transport services, and the railway sector, to forge strong collaborations with the media, for the benefit of the entire industry.