Turkish delegation assesses Mogadishu Port as fisheries project moves towards implementation

MOGADISHU (SONNA): A delegation from the Government of Türkiye, led by the director general responsible for fisheries in the Turkish agriculture ministry and accompanied by executives from fishing companies and traders in the seafood sector, has held talks at the Mogadishu Port Authority and at the Ministry of Ports and Marine Transport on putting into effect a fisheries project agreed earlier between the two countries.

At the port, the delegation was received by the Mogadishu Port Authority management, led by General Manager Ambassador Mohamed Ali Nur, known as Americo, with Deputy Managers Dr. Ali Haji Mohamed and Eng. Ismail Aw Muse. The Port Authority said the meeting concentrated on accelerating implementation of the project, and that the delegation toured different sections of the port to assess the infrastructure the work would run on.

Dr. Ali Haji Mohamed told reporters that the discussions centred on how the port would receive the Turkish and Somali fishing companies expected to operate in Somali fisheries. He said the visitors were given detailed information about the facility and were satisfied with what they were shown, and that their assessment can now be regarded as complete. He said he expects the work to begin shortly.

He said the port has served this kind of purpose before, having accommodated a company engaged in oil exploration and worked closely with it, and that a comparable or wider arrangement is envisaged for fisheries with the port as the operating base. He said the Port Authority is preparing to serve as the point at which catch is landed, handled and exported.

Ports and Marine Transport Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur received the same delegation at the Ministry, where the Turkish officials were accompanied by traders working in the seafood sector.

Abdirahim Warsame Diriye, Deputy Chairman of the Somali Marine Resources Research Centre, said after the meeting that the delegation has been in Mogadishu for several days carrying out assessment and inspection work and examining how agreements already concluded with the Somali government can be implemented. He said the talks covered investment, the condition of the ports the country currently has, the arrangements under which fishing vessels would enter and leave them, and fishing ports to be built in future.

He said the discussions also took in maritime agreements and seafarer matters, which fall within the Ministry’s mandate over maritime affairs and ports. The two sides agreed to establish a continuing working relationship, to cooperate on technical support and facilitation, and to move the work forward more quickly.

The meetings follow the Somali Fisheries Stakeholders Forum held at the Jazeera Hotel on Saturday, where both principals set out the same argument in public. The Ports and Marine Transport Minister told that gathering that the economy which can be built from the sea exceeds what land can offer, and that the coastline has gone largely undeveloped. The Port Authority’s General Manager told the same forum that a programme had been drawn up for a facility in Mogadishu where fishermen could land and store their catch, and said it would help Somali fish reach regional and international markets.

What the week has produced is a sequence rather than a single announcement. An agreement that already existed has been walked through the institutions that would have to carry it, and the visitors have seen the quays they would be working from. No start date has been published and the scale of any investment has not been disclosed, so the substance still lies ahead. What has shifted is that the constraint the forum identified on Saturday, the absence of a place where fish comes ashore and is handled properly, is now the specific thing two governments are working on.