Africa: Dar es Salaam to Host Africa Freight Forwarders' Conference

East African Business Week (Kampala)

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By Kenan Kalagho, 15 April 2013

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Tanzania Association of Freight Forwarders (TAFFA) has won a bid to host the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Association (FIATA) regional conference for Africa and the Middle East (RAME) this June. TAFFA first launched their campaign to host this prestigious conference in 2003.

(TAFFA President Stephen Ngatunga, Photo By Kenan Kalagho)
With the theme 'Towards more sustainable regional freight forwarding partnership' the conference will bring together public and private-sector participants in the field of transport logistics.
Speaking to East African Business Week in Dar es Salaam, TAFFA President Stephen Ngatunga said the conference will look at sharing ideas and finding solutions to prevalent problems.
The conference comes at a time when the country is embarking on an expansion and modernization of ports and railway lines with much of the new financing coming from the Chinese government.
This is in the wake of a recent visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping when 17 contracts were signed among them aiming at expanding the country's ports.
Ngatunga said TAFFA won the right to host RAME by organizing a series of well targeted presentations around the region and further afield centred on the opportunities available in the freight forwarding business in the near future and Tanzania's plans to keep pace with these developments.
"Business people from around the globe need to know that Tanzania is accessible though Dar es Salaam, Mtwara and Bagamoyo ports," Ngatunga said adding that advertising these ports abroad will hopefully attract more business people.
FIATA is a nongovernmental organization, representing an industry covering approximately 40,000 forwarding and logistics firms, who employ about eight to 10 million people in 150 countries around the world.
This global trade event which will also be co-hosted by the Ministry of Transport and involve 300 senior clearing agents and freight forwarders, business delegates, government officials , ambassadors and trade representatives from the African and Middle East regions.
The meeting will also focus on directing participants on programmes that wholly focuses on freight forwarding and trade related issues in Africa and the Middle East regions.