THE ABIDJAN PORT AUTHORITY MARKS ITS PRESENCE AT THE IAPH 2024 CONFERENCE

Activités portuaires Monday 02 December 2024

The 2024 conference of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) opened its doors yesterday, Tuesday 08 October 2024, in Hamburg, Germany, with the support of the World Bank, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and other industrial partners.

The conference brought together all the world's port stakeholders, including the Abidjan Port Authority (PAA), and was held over three days on the theme of ‘Managing risks - building resilience - unlocking opportunities’. To this end, the PAA was represented by Mr. Zoumana TOURÉ, Director of Property and Assets, Dr Titi PALÉ, Director of Sales, Marketing and Communications, and Mr. ASSI ACHY Magloire, Director of Control, Audit and Quality. Also present was Mr. Jean-Marie KOFFI, Secretary General of the Ports Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA).

It’s worth noting that the IAPH has its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, and was founded in November 1955 in Los Angeles, United States, as a result of the desire of a number of the world's port authorities to protect their interests and to act as an industry benchmark for sharing the best practices of the world's most advanced ports. Over the past six decades, IAPH has grown into a global alliance of ports, today representing some 185 ports and 160 port-related companies in 88 countries around the world, as of 31 August 2024. Together, the member ports handle more than 60% of world maritime trade and more than 60% of world container traffic.

In their opening addresses, Jens Meier, President 2023-2025 of the IAPH and Managing Director of Hamburg Port Authority, and Arsenio Dominguez, Secretary General of the IMO, welcomed the maritime supply chain experts. The participants met to discuss the challenges facing the port and maritime sector in a global context of increasing geopolitical instability and heightened threats to physical and digital security, both at sea and on land.

To gain a better grasp of those issues, a number of panels were organised during the 3 days of reflection, giving participants the opportunity to discuss a number of major problems. These include:

• the suitability of the maritime and port world in relation to international policy objectives;
• the resilience of global maritime supply chains;
• the importance of Artificial Intelligence in the strategic management of port risks;
• innovative new port technologies;
• port leadership in data collaboration;
• ways of combating and preventing illicit trade in ports;
• tools for assessing the sustainability of cruise ports;
• the development of new economic models for ports;
• the harmonisation of cybersecurity standards in ports.

The IAPH 2024 conference lived up to its ambition of offering its participants a framework for exchanges and sharing of experience between experts from all over the world, in order to develop safe and sustainable solutions to those common challenges in a deeply interconnected world.

At its closing on 10 October, the conference also hosted the much-coveted ‘Sustainable Development Awards’ of the Global Ports Sustainability Programme. This year, the Chennai Port Authority in India won the IAPH 2024 Sustainability Award in the Community Building category, marking a historic moment as the first Indian port to achieve that recognition.

The IAPH 2025 conference was scheduled from 7 to 9 October 2025 in Kobe, Japan, to coincide with the association's 70th anniversary.