GM of Dubai Ports Word: We’ll not fire our workers

The company, which officially launched the process of managing the containers of “Algiers port” agreed with 654 workers to change their temporary contracts and make them permanent, and it will not fire any worker in the port of containers which will notice radical changes before the end of 2009, General Manager of “Dubai Ports World” in Algeria, Mohamed Lakhdare said.

• “The first phase –seven years- of partnership between the Group of Dubai Ports World and the Port of Algiers will de allocated for the development of the containers’ management and storage as well as for modernizing the equipment and machinery, reviewing the way to conduct the entry and exit operations of these containers, management of the gates, and upgrading the infrastructures and modernizing the human resources”, he told Echrouk.
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• “The implementation of partnership will be faster than expected thanks to the Algerian government’s help. This will allow access to preliminary results at the end of the year. There will be a significant difference in the quality of services which will help dealers with the port. Efforts of the new company will focus on raising the annual capacity of the containers’ ports to 760.000 containers of 20 feet during the five next years compared to 600.000 containers in 2008. The agreement includes the investment value of $85 million during the first three years”, he added.
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• “The implementation of this partnership may face some obstacles and the workers of the port fear they would lose their jobs. We conclude a comprehensive agreement with the workers union after a lengthy meeting in order to change the temporary contracts of 654 workers which linked them with Algiers Port administration and make them permanent contracts.”
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• “The company also developed a plan to overcome these obstacles in order to lift the current storage area from 12 hectares to 18 hectares before the end of 2009 as well as promoting the mechanization of the containers’ administration. We sent six staff members to assist in training sessions of two months in Dakar ports in Senegal and Djibouti and Dubai”.      
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• “The company will consider the process of the containers’ and cars’ entry and exit to the port before the end of this month in cooperation and full coordination with the Algerian partner. The plan also aims at launching the daily work of the port in order to limit losses by Algiers Ports which are estimated annually at $250m due to the management system which is ancient presenting 70% of the foreign Algeria trade operations”.
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• Inefficiency of services at the port causes a big rise in the prices of shipping services towards Algeria.
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• Prices of transferring one container from Marseille towards Algiers Port reached $750 last year, compared to $325 for transferring a container from Marseille to New York, despite the marine distance between Marseille and New York is 7000 km.
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• The General Manager of Dubai Ports World also said that Djendjen port in Jijel, east of Algeria, is a transit port which can compete with Mediterranean ports after the end of the strategy to develop it and this will allow our group to enter strongly to the Mediterranean area”.